This privacy notice describes how the Aspiring Solicitors Foundation (‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’) collects and processes personal information about you, how we use and protect this information, and your rights in relation to this information.
This privacy notice applies to all personal information we collect or process about you. Personal information is information, or a combination of pieces of information that could reasonably allow you to be identified.
Information we collect about you
We will collect personal information about you from a variety of sources, including information we collect from you directly (e.g., when you contact us) as described below.
Note that we may be required by law to collect certain personal information about you, or as a consequence of any contractual relationship we have with you. Failure to provide this information may prevent or delay the fulfilment of these obligations. We will inform you at the time your information is collected whether certain data is compulsory and the consequences of the failure to provide such data. For example, if you do not provide certain information to us on the application form, your application will not be processed.
Information we collect directly from you
The categories of information that we collect directly from you are:
- personal details (e.g., name, date of birth, age)
- contact details (e.g., phone number, email address, postal address, or mobile number)
- social mobility status
- educational details
- and any other information of yours that we, acting reasonably, consider relevant for the consideration of any application of yours.
Information we collect from other sources
We collect information about you from other sources, which may include your university, workplace, or other such establishments. We will only gather personal information from others with your consent and will do so at your request (to complete a reference for a grant item). If you complete an application form, you are consenting to this via your submission as the requirement of a reference is clearly stated on our website and application form.
How we use your personal information and the basis on which we use it
We use your personal information to:
- process any application for the purposes of providing financial assistance, including grants, the provision of items (e.g., a loan) or the provision of facilities, such as books.
- deal with your enquiries and requests
- to comply with our internal policies and procedures
- comply with legal obligations to which we are subject and cooperate with regulators and law enforcement bodies
- personalise the marketing messages we send you
- for any other purpose reasonably necessary to consider any application from you to us.
We must have a legal basis to process your personal information. In most cases the legal basis will be on the following:
a. to fulfil our contractual obligations to you, for example to provide our services.
Failure to provide this information may prevent or delay the fulfilment of these contractual obligation
b. to comply with our legal obligations to you
c. to meet our legitimate interests, for example to process your application to determine whether you meet our internal eligibility requirements and therefore gain access to the financial assistance we offer. When we process personal information to meet our legitimate interests, we put in place robust safeguards to ensure that your privacy is protected will ensure that our legitimate interests do not override your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms.
We will process your personal information to the extent reasonably necessary to consider any application from you to us. Circumstances in which we will process your personal information includes:
- To give proper consideration to any application submitted from you to us. We note that any failure to provide personal information reasonably requested may result in a delay or an inability for us to consider any application from you to us;
- To enable us to comply with any applicable laws and/or regulations and/or internal policies and procedures; and
- Any other purpose considered reasonably necessary.
- For the avoidance of doubt, we confirm that we have operational measures and policies and procedures in place to ensure we are best placed to comply with applicable privacy laws and/or regulations.
We may obtain your consent to collect and use certain types of personal information when we are required to do so by law (for example, in relation to our direct marketing activities). If we ask for your consent to process your personal information, you may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the details at the end of this privacy notice.
3. Your rights over your personal information
You have certain rights regarding your personal information. These may include rights to:
- access your personal information
- rectify the information we hold about you
- erase your personal information
- restrict our use of your personal information
- object to our use of your personal information
- receive your personal information in a usable electronic format and transmit it to a third party (the right to data portability)
- lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority
If you would like to discuss or exercise such rights, please contact us at the details below.
We encourage you to contact us to update or correct your information if it changes or if the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate. We will contact you if we need additional information from you to honour your requests.
Information Sharing
There are circumstances in which we may consider it reasonably necessary to share the personal information of yours that we have in our possession with a third party. Such circumstances include a request from a law enforcement agency, pursuant to a Court order, a request from a regulatory body or government authority, or other third party which can demonstrate a legal basis for such a request. We may also share your personal information with such parties to ensure we comply with any applicable law and/or regulation, or investigation by a body with a legal basis for conducting such investigation
Information Security and Storage
We implement technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk to the personal information we process. These measures are aimed at ensuring the on-going integrity and confidentiality of personal information. We evaluate these measures on a regular basis to ensure the security of the processing.
We will keep your personal information for as long as we have a relationship with you, and for a period of 7 years thereafter. We will only retain your personal information after this time if we are required to do so to comply with the law, or if there are outstanding claims or complaints that will reasonably require your personal information to be retained.
International Data Transfers
Your personal information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in a country that is not regarded by the European Commission as ensuring an adequate level of protection for personal information. Where this is the case, we will put in place appropriate safeguards (such as contractual commitments) in accordance with applicable legal requirements to ensure that your data is adequately protected. For more information on the appropriate safeguards in place, please contact us at the details below.
Contact Us
We may act as both the controller and processor responsible for the personal information that we collect and process.
If you have questions or concerns regarding the way in which your personal information has been used, please contact info@theasf.org.uk
We are committed to working with you to obtain a fair resolution of any complaint or concern about privacy. If, however, you believe that we have not been able to assist with your complaint or concern, you have the right to make a complaint to the data protection authority of the United Kingdom using their website https://ico.org.uk/.
Changes to the Policy
You may request a copy of this privacy notice from us using the contact details set out above. We may modify or update this privacy notice from time to time.
If we change this privacy notice, we will notify you of the changes. Where changes to this privacy notice will have a fundamental impact on the nature of the processing or otherwise have a substantial impact on you, we will give you sufficient advance notice so that you have the opportunity to exercise your rights (e.g., to object to the processing).
Review
This policy will be monitored routinely by the board of trustees and reviewed formally every two years unless changes to legislation, or the board deem it necessary to review sooner.
Last updated 31.5.2023