Privacy policy

Congratulations – you’ve found Earnest’s privacy policy. We tend not to get too many visitors here, but if data protection and GDPR compliance is entirely your thing, you’re in absolutely the right place.

  1. Important information about who we are
  2. The data we collect about you
  3. How we collect your personal data
  4. How we use your personal data
  5. How we use cookies on our website
  6. Who we share your data with
  7. Sharing your data outside the European Economic Area
  8. How we keep your data secure
  9. How long we hold your data for
  10. How we respect your legal rights
  11. Glossary of terms

Important information and who we are

Purpose of this privacy notice

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how Earnest collects and processes your personal data through your use of our websites, including any data you may provide through our websites when you sign up to receive our marketing communications or when you instruct us to deliver B2B marketing services on your behalf.

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

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

Controller

Earnest (London) Limited is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as “Earnest”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).

“Our Site” means any of the websites hosted and managed by Earnest, including:

www.earnest-agency.com
www.earnezt-agency.com
and other subdomains of earnest-agency.com

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights (see Glossary of terms), please contact us using the details set out below.

Contact details

Our full details are:

Full name of legal entity: Earnest (London) Limited
Email address: info@earnest-agency.com
Postal address: 23 Fitzroy Street, London, W1T 4BP
Telephone number: +44 (0)20 73463 9447

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

Changes to the privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Third-party links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

The data we collect about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:

Identity Data includes first name, last name, title.

Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.

Financial Data includes bank account and payment details.

Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.

Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.

Profile Data includes your username and password, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.

Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services.

Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose.

Aggregated Data

may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

How is your personal data collected?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including:

Direct interactions.

You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:

  • create an account on our website;
  • subscribe to our service or publications;
  • request marketing to be sent to you;
  • complete a survey; or
  • give us some feedback.

Automated technologies or interactions.

As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies.

Third parties or publicly available sources.

We may receive personal data about you from various third parties as set out below:

  • Technical Data from the following parties:
    1. analytics providers such as Google based outside the EU;
    2. advertising networks based inside
      OR
      outside the EU; and
    3. search information providers based inside
      OR
      outside the EU.
  • Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services based inside
    OR
    outside the EU.
  • Identity and Contact Data from publicly availably sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based inside the EU.

How we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

We rely on a mixture of legitimate interest and consent as the legal basis for processing your personal data. For existing customers and suppliers we believe we have a legitimate interest to communicate to you either to deliver our contracted services or to develop our business with you. Where the personal details relate to somebody that we are not currently doing business with we will ask you to opt-in to receive our marketing communications. In either case you have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

Purpose/Activity

Type of data

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest

To register you as a new customer
    1. Identity
    2. Contact
Performance of a contract with you
To process and deliver services to you including:
    1. Manage payments, fees and charges
    2. Collect and recover money owed to us
    1. Identity
    2. Contact
    3. Financial
    4. Transaction
    5. Marketing and Communications
    1. Performance of a contract with you
    2. Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us)
To manage our relationship with you which will include:
    1. Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy
    2. Asking you to provide a recommendation or complete a survey
    1. Identity
    2. Contact
    3. Profile
    4. Marketing and Communications
    1. Performance of a contract with you
    2. Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
    3. Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our products/services)
To enable you to complete a survey
    1. Identity
    2. Contact
    3. Profile
    4. Usage
    5. Marketing and Communications
    1. Performance of a contract with you
    2. Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them and grow our business)
To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data)
    1. Identity
    2. Contact
    3. Technical
    1. Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise)
    2. Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To deliver relevant website content to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the content we serve to you
    1. Identity
    2. Contact
    3. Profile
    4. Usage
    5. Marketing and Communications
    6. Technical
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences
    1. Technical
    2. Usage
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our products and services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you
    1. Identity
    2. Contact
    3. Technical
    4. Usage
    5. Profile
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business)

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising:

Promotional offers from us

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased services from us and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.

Third-party marketing

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside Earnest for marketing purposes.

Opting out

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time.

How we use cookies on our website

Our site may place and access certain first party Cookies on your computer or device. First party Cookies are those placed directly by us and are used only by us. We use Cookies to facilitate and improve your experience of our site and to provide and improve our services. We have carefully chosen these Cookies and have taken steps to ensure that your privacy is protected and respected at all times.

All Cookies used by and on our site are used in accordance with current UK and EU Cookie Law.

Certain features of our site depend on Cookies to function. UK and EU Cookie Law deems these Cookies to be “strictly necessary”. These Cookies are shown below. Your consent will not be sought to place these Cookies. You may still block these cookies by changing your internet browser’s settings as detailed below, but please be aware that our site may not work as intended if you do so. We have taken great care to ensure that your privacy is not at risk by allowing them.

The following first party Cookies may be placed on your computer or device:

Our site uses analytics services provided by Google, Bing, Lead Forensics, WordPress, Hubspot and LinkedIn. Website analytics refers to a set of tools used to collect and analyse usage statistics, enabling us to better understand how people use our site. This, in turn, enables us to improve our site and services offered through it. You do not have to allow us to use these Cookies, as detailed below, however whilst our use of them does not pose any risk to your privacy or your safe use of our site, it does enable us to continually improve our site, making it a better and more useful experience for you.

The analytics service(s) used by our site use(s) Cookies to gather the required information. Some of these Cookies may be placed immediately when you first visit our site and it may not be possible for us to obtain your prior consent. You may remove these Cookies and prevent future use of them by following the steps set out below.

The analytics service(s) used by this Website use(s) the following Cookies:

Name of Cookie First / Third Party Provider Purpose
Google search console and analytics cookie Third Google Providing and managing your access to our site
Google ads cookie Third Google Personalising ads served to you
Bing webmaster tools Third Microsoft Providing and managing your access to our site
WordPress login Third WordPress Managing your access to our site
Hubspot tracking Third Hubspot Personalising and tailoring your experience on our site
LinkedIn Third LinkedIn Personalising ads served to you

 

More information on how Google uses information can be found here.

Disabling Cookies

You can choose to enable or disable Cookies in your internet browser. Most internet browsers also enable you to choose whether you wish to disable all cookies or only third party cookies. By default, most internet browsers accept Cookies but this can be changed. For further details, please consult the help menu in your internet browser or the documentation that came with your device.

Deleting Cookies

You can choose to delete Cookies at any time however you may lose any information that enables you to access our site more quickly and efficiently including, but not limited to, login and personalisation settings.

It is recommended that you keep your internet browser and operating system up-to-date and that you consult the help and guidance provided by the developer of your internet browser and manufacturer of your computer or device if you are unsure about adjusting your privacy settings.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data 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 you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data 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 data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

Who we share your data with

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above.

  • External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
  • Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Sharing your data outside the European Economic Area (EEA)

We share your personal data within Earnest. This may involve transferring your data outside the European Economic Area

Some of our external third parties are based outside the European Economic Area so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.

How we keep your data secure

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

How long we hold your data for

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see Request erasure below for further information.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

How we respect your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Please click on the links below to find out more about these rights:

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Glossary of terms

LAWFUL BASIS

Legitimate Interest

means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

Performance of Contract

means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation

means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

THIRD PARTIES

  • Liberty Pay our partner in the Tap For Change charitable giving initiative.
  • Service providers who provide IT and system administration services.
  • Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
  • HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have the right to:

Request access

to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction

of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure

of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing

of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing

of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer

of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time

where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.