Merriman Property

Privacy Policy

Merriman Property is committed to protecting the privacy of all visitors to our website, and have the following policy in place with regards to the treatment of your personal information. In this document, ‘we’, ‘our’, ‘or’, ‘us’ refer to Merriman Property.

Introduction

This is a notice to inform you of our policy about all information that we record about you. It sets out the conditions under which we may process any information that we collect from you, or that you provide to us. It covers information that could identify you (personal information) and information that could not. In the context of the law and this notice, “process” means collect, store, transfer, use or otherwise act on information.

If there are one or more points below with which you are not happy, your only recourse is to leave our website immediately.

We take seriously the protection of your privacy and confidentiality. We understand that all visitors to our website are entitled to know that their personal data will not be used for any purpose unintended by them, and will not accidentally fall into the hands of a third party.

We undertake to preserve the confidentiality of all information you provide to us, and hope that you reciprocate.

Our policy complies with UK law accordingly implemented, including that required by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The law requires us to tell you about your rights and our obligations to you in regards to the processing and control of your personal data. We do this now, by requesting that you read the information provided at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/

Except as set out below, we do not share, or sell, or disclose to a third party, any information collected through our website.

The basis on which we process information about you

The law requires us to determine under which of six defined bases we process different categories of your personal information, and to notify you of the basis for each category.

If a basis on which we process your personal information is no longer relevant then we shall immediately stop processing your data.

If the basis changes then if required by law we shall notify you of the change and of any new basis under which we have determined that we can continue to process your information.

1. Information we process

When you visit our website, or otherwise agree to our terms and conditions, a contract is formed between you and us.

In order to carry out our obligations under that contract we must process the information you give us. Some of this information may be personal information.

We may use it in order to:

verify your identity for security purposes
provide you with suggestions and advice on services and how to obtain the most from using our website

We process this information on the basis there is a contract between us, or that you have requested we use the information before we enter into a legal contract.

Additionally, we may aggregate this information in a general way and use it to provide class information, for example to monitor our performance with respect to a particular service we provide. If we use it for this purpose, you as an individual will not be personally identifiable.

We shall continue to process this information until the contract between us ends or is terminated by either party under the terms of the contract.

2. Information we process with your consent

Through certain actions when otherwise there is no contractual relationship between us, such as when you browse our website or ask us to provide you more information, you provide your consent to us to process information that may be personal information.

Wherever possible, we aim to obtain your explicit consent to process this information, for example, by asking you to agree to our use of cookies.

Sometimes you might give your consent implicitly, such as when you send us a message by e-mail to which you would reasonably expect us to reply.

Except where you have consented to our use of your information for a specific purpose, we do not use your information in any way that would identify you personally. We may aggregate it in a general way and use it to provide class information, for example to monitor the performance of a particular page on our website.

If you have given us explicit permission to do so, we may from time to time pass your name and contact information to selected associates whom we consider may provide services or products you would find useful.

We continue to process your information on this basis until you withdraw your consent or it can be reasonably assumed that your consent no longer exists.

You may withdraw your consent at any time by instructing us. However, if you do so, you may not be able to use our website or our services further.

3. Information we process for the purposes of legitimate interests

We may process information on the basis there is a legitimate interest, either to you or to us, of doing so.

Where we process your information on this basis, we do after having given careful consideration to:

whether the same objective could be achieved through other means
whether processing (or not processing) might cause you harm
whether you would expect us to process your data, and whether you would, in the round, consider it reasonable to do so

For example, we may process your data on this basis for the purposes of:

record-keeping for the proper and necessary administration of our business
responding to unsolicited communication from you to which we believe you would expect a response
protecting and asserting the legal rights of any party
insuring against or obtaining professional advice that is required to manage business risk
protecting your interests where we believe we have a duty to do so4. Information we process because we have a legal obligation

We are subject to the law like everyone else. Sometimes, we must process your information in order to comply with a statutory obligation.

For example, we may be required to give information to legal authorities if they so request or if they have the proper authorisation such as a search warrant or court order.

This may include your personal information.

Specific uses of information you provide to us.

5. Information provided on the understanding that it will be shared with a third party

Our website allows you to post information with a view to that information being read, copied, downloaded, or used by other people.

Examples include:

posting a message in our forum
tagging an image
clicking on an icon next to another visitor’s message to convey your agreement, disagreement or thanks

In posting personal information, it is up to you to satisfy yourself about the privacy level of every person who might use it.

We do not specifically use this information except to allow it to be displayed or shared.

We do store it, and we reserve a right to use it in the future in any way we decide.

Once your information enters the public domain, we have no control over what any individual third party may do with it.

We accept no responsibility for their actions at any time.

Provided your request is reasonable and there is no legal basis for us to retain it, then at our discretion we may agree to your request to delete personal information that you have posted. You can make a request by contacting us at chris@merrimanproperty.com.

6. Complaining

When we receive a complaint, we record all the information you have given to us.

We use that information to resolve your complaint.

If your complaint reasonably requires us to contact some other person, we may decide to give to that other person some of the information contained in your complaint. We do this as infrequently as possible, but it is a matter for our sole discretion as to whether we do give information, and if we do, what that information is.

We may also compile statistics showing information obtained from this source to assess the level of service we provide, but not in a way that could identify you or any other person.

Use of information we collect through automated systems when you visit our website

1. Cookies

Our website uses cookies. They are placed by software that operates on our servers, and by software operated by third parties whose services we use.

The ePrivacy directive – more specifically Article 5(3) – requires prior informed consent for storage or for access to information stored on a user’s terminal equipment (ie, you must ask users if they agree to most cookies). However, some cookies are exempt from this requirement and we consider that applies to the cookies set on our website.

You can prevent their use through your browser settings, but you will then not be able to use all the functionality of our website.

We provide more information about the cookies we use in our Cookie Policy.

2. Personal identifiers from your browsing activity

Requests by your web browser to our servers for web pages and other content on our website are recorded.

We record information such as your geographical location, your Internet service provider and your IP address.

This information is used by our security systems to track events on the website and may be included in alerts of suspicious activity sent to the website administrator.

If combined with other information we know about you from previous visits, the data possibly could be used to identify you personally, even if you are not signed in to our website.

3. Our use of re-marketing

Re-marketing involves placing a cookie on your computer when you browse our website in order to be able to serve to you an advert for our products or services when you visit some other website.

We do not use re-marketing cookies.

Disclosure and sharing of your information

1. Information we obtain from third parties

Although we do not disclose your personal information to any third party (except as set out in this notice), we sometimes receive data that is indirectly made up from your personal information from third parties whose services we use.

2. Third party advertising on our website

We do not carry third-party advertising on our website.

3. Data may be processed outside the European Union

Our website is hosted in the UK. We may also use outsourced services in countries outside the European Union from time to time in other aspects of our business.

Accordingly data obtained within the UK or any other country could be processed outside the European Union.

We take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that any outsourced service providers implement appropriate safeguards to protect your personal information.

Access to your own information

1. Access to your personal information

We do not hold your personally identifiable information on our website.

To obtain a copy of any information that is not provided on our website you may send us a request.

After receiving the request, we will tell you when we expect to provide you with the information.

2. Removal of your information

If you wish us to remove personally identifiable information, you may contact us.

This may limit the service we can provide to you.

3. Verification of your information

When we receive any request to access, edit or delete personal identifiable information we shall first take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you access or otherwise taking any action. This is important to safeguard your information.

Other matters

1. Use of site by children

We do not sell products or provide services for purchase by children, nor do we market to children.

If you are under 18, you may use our website only with consent from a parent or guardian.

2. How you can complain

If you are not happy with our privacy policy or if have any complaint then you should contact us.

If a dispute is not settled then we hope you will agree to attempt to resolve it by engaging in good faith with us in a process of mediation or arbitration.

If you are in any way dissatisfied about how we process your personal information, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office. This can be done at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

3. Retention period for personal data

Except as otherwise mentioned in this privacy notice, we keep your personal information only for as long as required by us:

to provide you with the services you have requested;
to comply with other law, including for the period demanded by our tax authorities;
to support a claim or defence in court.

4. Compliance with the law

Our privacy policy has been compiled so as to comply with the law of every country or legal jurisdiction in which we aim to do business. If you think it fails to satisfy the law of your jurisdiction, we should like to hear from you.

However, ultimately it is your choice as to whether you wish to use our website.

5. Review of this privacy policy

We may update this privacy notice from time to time as necessary. The terms that apply to you are those posted here on our website on the day you use our website. We advise you to print a copy for your records.