Privacy Policy

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. In this privacy policy we explain how we collect and use your personal information when you use our website, become a member and/or attend our events.

“We” are the Manchester Trainee Solicitors Group (MTSG), an unincorporated not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting and facilitating networking between trainee solicitors and other prospective lawyers in the Greater Manchester area.

We are the data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and any other data protection legislation applicable in the UK from time to time.

If you have any questions about your privacy on our website, or our use of your personal data, please Contact Us.

Please note that links from our website may take you to external websites which are not covered by this policy. We recommend that you check their privacy policies before submitting any personal information to such sites. We will not be responsible for the content, function or information collection policies of these external websites.

What information do we collect about you and how do we collect it?

You are not required (by law or by any contract with us) to provide personal information to us via this website. We will only require you to provide personal information to us where it is necessary for us to provide you with a service at your request, such as when you become a member.

Information you provide to us

We may receive personal information about you whenever you contact or engage with us. For example, by doing the following:

  • Becoming an MTSG member
  • Attending our events
  • Sponsoring our events
  • Applying to join the MTSG committee
  • Supplying us with your products or services
  • Using and browsing our website
  • Following or connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn
  • Telephoning, texting, writing by post or emailing us

This information may include the following:

  • Normal identification information, such as your full name, title, job title and organisation
  • Contact information, such as your postal address, email address and telephone number
  • Payment or bank details (if you pay for your membership personally)
  • Your social media accounts and posts (if you share them with us)
  • Information about your attendance at our events
  • Additional information relevant to your use of our site and services, such as your marketing preferences, survey responses and feedback

Information we collect about you on our website

We collect information using cookies and other similar technologies to help distinguish you from other users of our website. These can streamline your online experience by saving you from re-inputting some information and also allow us to make improvements to our website. For more information about how and why we use cookies, please take a look through our Cookie Policy.

When you visit our website we may collect the following information:

  • Which pages you view and which links you follow
  • Your IP address and general location
  • Details of the hardware and software that you are using to access the site
  • A device identifier (cookie or IP address) for fraud prevention
  • Details of your visits to our website and the resources that you access, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data

Our website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

Information we collect about you from other sources

We may collect information about you from other sources. This may include the following:

  • Publicly available information, from sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Roll
  • Information you have shared publicly, including on social media

This list is not exhaustive and, in specific instances, we may need to collect additional data for the purposes set out in this policy.

Information we receive about you from other sources

Sometimes you will have given your consent for other websites, services or third parties to provide information to us. Generally, this will only be the case where another party (such as your firm) applies for membership on your behalf.

However, this may also include information from third parties that we work with to provide our services, such as payment processors and technical support companies. Whenever we receive information about you from these third parties, we will let you know what information we have received and how and why we intend to use it.

How do we use your personal information?

We take data protection law seriously, so below we have set out exactly how and why we use your information, and what our legal basis is to be able to use your information in each way.

Managing our members, committee and other contacts

We need to use personal information about you in order to maintain records of our members, our committee and other contacts (including representatives at event sponsors, law firms, charities and other organisations).

Our member records are maintained by our Chair and General Secretaries and may only be accessed by other committee members with the Chair’s approval. If you’re a member, we need to use your information in this way as a part of our contract with you.

Details of our committee members are available publicly on our website and may be published in promotional articles. Information about other contacts, such as event sponsors, charities, recruiters and law firms, may be maintained and accessed by any of our committee members as required but will only be shared or disclosed to third parties where necessary in connection with an event. We have a legitimate interest to use information about our committee and contacts in this way.

Organising and running our events

We may need to use your personal information in connection with the events that we organise, so that we can:

  • Manage and process ticket purchases
  • Keep track of attendees
  • Arrange venues and other services
  • Arrange sponsorship

We need to use your information in this way either to perform the contract that we have with you, or for our legitimate interests and those of our members, sponsors and charities.

Telling you about our events

We will use your personal information to tell you about the events that we organise, as well as other news and updates about the MTSG. This is necessary in order for us to perform our end of the contract that we have with you, as this is the reason that you become a member!

If you wish to be removed from our mailing list you may contact us at any time to request this. This will not affect your membership status, and you may still attend our events. However, please remember that if you unsubscribe from our mailing list we won’t be able to tell you about the events that we have coming up and you may miss out on the primary benefits of being a member.

Committee elections

Each summer, we hold an election amongst our members to choose the committee that will run the MTSG for the following academic year. We will contact you with information about applying for the various committee roles, and we will contact you to vote for nominees after the application process. Without the hard work of our committee, the MTSG wouldn’t exist, and we have a legitimate interest in using your information for these purposes.

Contacting you

We need to use your personal information to keep in contact with you, and it’s in our legitimate interests to do so. Whether you are a member, part of our committee or another contact, we will use your personal information to communicate with you generally, verify your identity, deal with any complaints you may have and to let you know about important changes to our organisation or policies.

Improving our organisation

We always want to offer the best services and experience that we can. Sometimes this means we may use your information to find ways that we can improve what we do, or how we do it. In this context, we will only use you information where it is necessary so that we can:

  • Review and improve our existing events and services and develop new ones
  • Review and improve the performance of our systems, processes and our committee
  • Improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer

In limited circumstances, we may use your personal information for further purposes, such as:

  • To meet our legal obligations or to detect and prevent fraud, money-laundering and other crimes
  • To protect your interests, or the interests of others. This may include in the event of criminality such as identity theft, piracy or fraud

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Who do we share your personal information with?

We share the information that you provide to us with our committee so that we can provide our services to you (although access to certain information is limited to the Chair and relevant committee members; please see above for further information). Contact details for our committee are shared publicly on our website.

We may share your data with selected third parties. For example, we may share your information with:

  • Internet hosting providers to host the website, related infrastructure, services and applications
  • Payment service providers to process payments
  • Ticketing services (usually Eventbrite) to manage and process event ticket purchases
  • Contact management systems to send emails, instant messages, social media messages and SMS messages
  • Attendees of certain events, where we may distribute an attendee list (such as our Winter and Summer Balls, where we need to circulate seating plans)
  • Event sponsors, so that they know who is attending the events that they sponsor

There are certain exceptional circumstances in which we may disclose your information to other third parties. This would be where we believe that the disclosure is:

  • Required by the law, or in order to comply with judicial proceedings, court orders or legal or regulatory proceedings
  • Necessary to protect the safety of our members, our committee, our property or the public
  • Necessary for the prevention or detection of crime, including exchanging information with other companies or organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction
  • Proportionate as part of a merger, business or asset sale, in the event that this happens we will share your information with the prospective seller or buyer involved

How long do we keep your personal information?

We will only store your personal information for as long as we need it for the purposes for which it was collected. Where we provide you with any service (including where you become a member), we will retain any information you provide to us at least for as long as we continue to provide that service to you.

We may retain contact details of our sponsors, charity representatives, law firms and other organisations indefinitely (or for as long as we continue to work with them) but we will keep these records updated with the current points of contact (and we won’t retain details of former contacts).

We retain information about former members for no more than 3 years after cessation of their membership.

In all other circumstances, we may keep your information for no more than 3 years.

How do we protect your personal information?

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this policy.

We try to ensure that all information you provide to us is transferred securely via the website. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

All information you provide to us is stored on third party secure servers in the UK.

What rights do you have in respect of your personal information?

You have the right to be informed

We have a legal obligation to provide you with concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible information about your personal information and our use of it. We have written this policy to do just that, but if you have any questions or require more specific information, please Contact Us.

You have the right to access your personal data

You have the right to ask us to confirm whether or not we hold any of your personal information. If we do, you have the right to have a copy of your information and to be informed of the following:

  • Why we have been using your information
  • What categories of information we were using
  • Who we have shared the information with
  • How long we envisage holding your information

In order to maintain the security of your information, we will have to verify your identity before we provide you with a copy of the information we hold. The first copy of your information that you request from us will be provided free of charge, if you require further copies we may charge an administrative fee to cover our costs. Please Contact Us if you wish to make a subject access request.

You have the right to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data

Where you have requested a copy of the information we hold about you, you may notice that there are inaccuracies in the records, or that certain parts are incomplete. If this is the case you can Contact Us so that we can correct our records.

You have the right to be forgotten

There may be times where it is no longer necessary for us to hold personal information about you. This could be if:

  • The information is no longer needed for the original purpose that we collected it for
  • You withdraw your consent for us to use the information (and we have no other legal reason to keep using it)
  • You object to us using your information and we have no overriding reason to keep using it
  • We have used your information unlawfully
  • We are subject to a legal requirement to delete your information

In those situations you have the right to have your personal data deleted. If you believe one of these situations applies to you, please Contact Us.

You have the right to have your data transferred to you or a third party in a common format

Also known as data portability, you have the right to obtain a copy of your personal data for your own purposes. This right allows you to move, copy or transfer your personal data more easily from one IT system to another, in a safe and secure way.

If you would like us to transfer a copy of your data to you or another organisation in a structured, commonly use and machine-readable format, please Contact Us. There is no charge for you exercising this right.

You have the right to object to direct marketing

You can tell us at any time that you would prefer that we do not use your information for direct marketing purposes. If you would not like to receive any direct marketing from us, please Contact Us or use the links provided in any of our marketing communications, and we will stop sending direct marketing immediately.

You have the right to object to us using your information for our own legitimate interests

We aim to always ensure that your rights and information are properly protected. Where we rely on our legitimate interests to process your personal information (see above), if you believe that the way we are using your data is not justified due to its impact on you or your rights, you have the right to object. Unless we have a compelling reason to continue, we must stop using your personal data for these purposes.

In order to exercise your right to object to our use of your data for the purposes above, please Contact Us.

You have the right to restrict how we use your personal data

You have the right to ask us to stop using your personal data in any way other than simply keeping a copy of it. This right is available where:

  • You have informed us that the information we hold about you is inaccurate, and we have not yet been able to verify this
  • You have objected to us using your information for our own legitimate interests and we are in the process of considering your objection
  • We have used your information in an unlawful way, but you do not want us to delete your data
  • We no longer need to use the information, but you need it for a legal claim

If you believe any of these situations apply, please Contact Us.

You have rights related to automated-decision making and profiling

Any automated decision-making or profiling we undertake is solely for the purpose of tailoring the information which we provide to you. We will not use automated decision-making or profiling to make any decisions which will have a legal effect upon you or otherwise significantly affect you, and you have the right not to be subject to such decisions. If you have any concerns or questions about this right, please Contact Us.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy. This version was last updated on 29 June 2018.

Complaints

If you wish to make a complaint about our collection or use of your personal data, please Contact Us in the first instance so that we may seek to resolve your complaint.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the statutory body which oversees data protection law in the UK. Please visit the ICO website if you wish to lodge a complaint with the ICO.

Contact Us

If your enquiry is not related to data protection, please contact the relevant committee member directly. You will find contact details for all of our current committee members on our website.

If you have an enquiry relating to your privacy or how we use your personal data, please contact:

Will Eggleston
Brabners LLP
55 King Street
Manchester M2 4LQ
will.eggleston@brabners.com
0161 836 8800