Privacy Policy
Here at Merston Peters, trust is important to us. We act as your advocate throughout your career, and it is in our best interest to act in your best interest.
In order to provide our service, we need to process some of your personal data and we aim to do so in a manner which is as fair and transparent as possible. We know that long privacy policies and complex legalese can be confusing and boring, so below are some straightforward answers to some common questions regarding data protection matters.
How do we work?
Merston Peters is an Employment Agency as defined in the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003. That means that we act to provide you with permanent recruitment services.
In order to do so, we need to register you on our database and process some of your personal data. This includes data like your name, contact details and work history. We will always endeavour to process the minimum amount of data possible to provide our service.
We rely on what is known as a ‘legitimate interest’ to carry out this processing. That is, it is in our legitimate interest to process your data to provide our business services – finding suitable candidates for our clients. This is balanced against your legitimate interest – finding a permanent role. Our legitimate interest does not override yours.
Job Alerts and Marketing
You can choose to receive job alerts from Merston Peters – that is, when a new role becomes available which may be of interest to you, we will send you an email to tell you about it. You can opt in or out of this at any time via your candidate dashboard.
You can also choose to receive marketing communications from us – Merston Peters does not sell products or send marketing on behalf of other brands, but we may email you from time to time regarding upcoming shows and events where you can come and see us face-to-face. You can opt in or out of these communications at any time via your candidate dashboard.
Where does your data go?
We may send your personal data to our Clients where you have applied for a role. Merston Peter’s policy is to always seek your express prior permission before submitting you for a role – it is important that you have all the relevant information on the role and employer and are happy to be taken forward. We will never submit your details to a potential employer without speaking to you first.
Your Rights
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) expanded on rights for individuals with regard to the processing of their personal data. You have the following rights:
- The right to be informed about the personal data that we process on you;
- The right to access the personal data we process on you;
- The right to rectification of your personal data if it is incorrect;
- The right to erasure of your personal data in certain circumstances;
- The right to restrict the processing of your personal data;
- The right to data portability in certain circumstances;
- The right not to be subject to automated decision making and profiling;
- Where processing of your personal data was based on a public or legitimate interest, the right to object; and
- Where processing of your personal data was based on consent, the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
All Subject Rights Requests, including Subject Access Requests (SAR’s), should be made in writing to carolinejones@delacyexecutive.co.ukcarolinejones@delacyexecutive.co.uk
Overseas Transfers
Merston Peters is a wholly owned subsidiary of Farms.com, based in Canada. While we do not routinely transfer your personal data outside of the UK, some data may be shared within the Farms.com group of companies in the process of providing work finding services, strictly in compliance with rules governing international transfers. Canada has been found to have adequate data protection laws for commercial organisations by the EU General Commission, meaning that your data is protected to the same level as in the UK and Europe.
If you apply for a role which is based overseas, as with roles based in the UK, our company policy is to always gain your express permission before submitting your details to a potential employer. If the role is based in a country which has not been subject to an adequacy decision regarding data protection law by the EU General Commission, Merston Peters will endeavour to ensure our Client has sufficient protection policies in place and discuss any potential risk with you to ensure you can make an informed decision.
International Candidates
Regardless of whether you are based in the UK or not, Merston Peters provides the same level of protection to your personal data as it does that of UK & EU citizens.
Retention
Merston Peters may retain your data for up to 8 years. Candidate records which are 8 years or older will be anonymised unless we have an active, ongoing relationship with you – that is, we are actively working on your behalf to secure you a role, or you have told us that you wish to remain on our database.
You have the right to request that we remove your record at any time. We will comply with all requests for erasure, unless we have an overriding legal obligation to keep your details. For example, you should be aware that the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003 require us to retain work seeker records for at least one year from a) the date of creation or b) the date that we last provided you with work-finding services, whichever is most recent.
What do we mean by anonymising your data?
When removing your record in line with our retention policy, or because you have requested that we remove it, we will anonymise your data. This means that absolutely no data will remain that could identify you as an individual – including in backup copies of our database. This process is irreversible.
Automated Processing
Merston Peters does not make any decisions regarding our clients or candidates based solely on automated processing or profiling.
Cookies & Log Files
We may obtain data about you from cookies. These are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. Please note that in a few cases some of our website features may not function if you remove cookies from your browser.
We use IP addresses to analyse trends, administer the site, track users’ movements, and to gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.
Complaints
Merston Peters strives to process your personal data in a manner that is fair, transparent and in compliance with relevant data protection legislation. If you feel we have failed in this endeavour, you have the right to complain.
In the first instance, complaints should be made in writing to our data protection lead Caroline Jones at carolinejones@delacyexecutive.co.uk
If you still feel your concerns have not been adequately addressed, you have the right to escalate your complaint to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), which is the supervisory authority for data protection in the UK.
The ICO can be contacted at the following: 0303 123 1113, or https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/