Legal
Privacy Policy
We take your privacy extremely seriously. This policy explains what data we collect from and about you, how we use it, and your rights.
This policy explains what data, including personal data, we collect from and about you when you access and use our website or use any of the services offered through our website.
Please note: once your enquiry has been submitted to a barrister, the use of your personal data will be subject to the privacy policy of that barrister (or the chambers of which that barrister is a member).
You should read this policy carefully to ensure you are fully informed about how we use your personal data and your rights.
We may need to make changes to this policy occasionally, to reflect any changes to our website or services. We will notify you of any important changes by email before they take effect.
If you have any questions about this policy, please email us at privacy@mybarrister.co.uk.
Who we are
MyBarrister Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales (company number 08136883) with its registered office at 81 Chancery Lane, London.
As required by UK data protection law, we are registered as a ‘controller’ with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under number ZA000922.
The personal data we collect
The ‘personal data’ referred to in this policy means any data that identifies or can be used to identify you. This does not include data where your identity has been removed (anonymous data).
The types of personal data collected through our Service include:
- Contact data: your name, phone number, and email details.
- Communications data: any emails or messages that you send to us or records of telephone conversations that we keep.
- Credentials data: if you are a barrister, your educational background, professional qualifications and other credentials.
- Enquiries data: if you are using our website to find a barrister, the contents of your enquiry (you should not provide more information to us than you feel comfortable with, and we would encourage you to only share any sensitive personal data with any barrister you connect with).
- Transactions data: if you are a barrister and subscribe to our service, we will collect your payment details.
- Technical data: our website uses cookies (see below) which collect the IP address assigned to you or someone who provides you with internet access, information about your device, information about how you arrived at our website, which country you are based in, how you navigated our website, and how you interacted with the content on our website.
What we use your personal data for
This section explains what we will use your personal data for, and the legal grounds relied on by us for those purposes.
Under UK and EU data protection law there are six legal grounds that we may rely upon, the most relevant being where:
- you have given your consent to us using your personal data for specific purposes;
- use of your personal data is necessary for us to enter into and perform our contract with you;
- use of your personal data is necessary to comply with any legal obligation on us;
- use of your personal data is necessary to pursue our legitimate interests and those interests are not outweighed by your fundamental rights and interests.
| Purpose | Types of personal data | Legal ground |
|---|---|---|
| Providing you with our services if you are a barrister | Contact, communications, credentials, transactions | Contract |
| Passing on your requests to contact a barrister | Contact, communications, enquiries | Contract |
| Responding to your emails, direct messages, or calls | Contact, communications, enquiries | Contract; Legitimate interests (our interests in responding to visitors’ queries) |
| Carrying out research and analysis, monitoring use of our website, improving the content and user experience of our website and customer service | Technical data | Consent (storing analytical cookies on your device); Legitimate interests (understanding the needs of our customers and visitors, and improving the website for the benefit of its users) |
| Investigating, responding, and complying with any legal, regulatory, and similar requests in relation to our website | Contact, communications, enquiries | Legal obligation |
| Fixing technical issues relating to our website | Technical data | Legitimate interests (ensuring our website provides the best user experience) |
| Sending you our newsletters and other emails relating to our discounts, offers, press releases and other services | Contact data | Consent |
We may use your personal data for purposes which are closely related to any of the above purposes. If we want to use your personal data for any unrelated purposes, we will let you know about this in advance.
Who we share your personal data with
The only people that will have access to your personal data include:
- our staff (who are either employed by us or engaged by us under contracts which include strict confidentiality and data protection obligations on them);
- the relevant barrister and the relevant members of that barrister’s chambers, if you are a visitor who searched for a barrister, called us, or submitted a request to a barrister (the barristers’ use of your personal data is subject to their own privacy policies and practices, and we accept no liability for such use, please check with the relevant barrister to find out how they use your personal data);
- our data processors (who are engaged by us under contracts which include strict confidentiality and data protection obligations on them);
- our technical service providers, such as our developers, hosting providers, email marketing tools and analytics providers (all of which will only have the access they need to make our Service work and provide their services to us, and will have entered into contracts which include strict confidentiality and data protection obligations on them);
- any regulatory authorities such as HM Revenue & Customs;
- any actual or potential buyer of our business.
If we are asked to disclose personal data in response to any legal request or court order, we will take legal advice before making any disclosure to ensure that your rights and interests are considered before responding.
Where your personal data are stored
Your personal data will be hosted on servers within the UK. Whenever we transfer your personal data outside the UK or the EEA, we ensure that a similar degree of protection applies. This is done through:
- ensuring that the country to which your personal data is transferred is deemed by the European Commission to provide a similar degree of protection for your personal data;
- entering into a specific contract that has been approved by the European Commission as providing a similar degree of protection for your personal data.
How we keep your personal 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.
We also limit access to your personal data to those of our staff and technical service providers that have a need to access it. They will only use your personal data based on our instructions and are required to keep your personal data confidential.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, or any other relevant regulator, where we are legally required to do so.
How long we keep your data for
We will only keep your personal data for as long as necessary in connection with the purposes we collected it for and to comply with any legal or reporting requirements.
To determine how long we keep your personal data for, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the purposes for which it was collected and the potential risk of harm from us continuing to keep it.
- Once your enquiry has been passed through to your chosen barrister, we will delete your contact data and enquiry data after a period of 36 months.
- If you are a barrister, we will delete your contact data and credentials data once your subscription has ended.
- We will retain personal data relating to email marketing until you unsubscribe, or your email address has become permanently unavailable.
- We will retain any analytical data collected about your use of our Service which identifies you for a period of 36 months.
- We may retain any data that does not identify you indefinitely.
Cookies
Our website uses small text files, called cookies, which are stored on your device when you access and use our website.
Apart from those cookies which are strictly necessary for us to provide you with access to our website, we will only store cookies on your device if you have consented to this when you first access our website and every 90 days thereafter.
As cookies are unique, we can use them to distinguish you from other users for the purposes described above. To find out more about cookies, how to refuse them and how to change your device’s cookie settings, you should visit the ICO Cookie Guidance.
Our website and app use the following types of cookies:
- Strictly necessary cookies: these cookies are required for the operation of our website or app (we do not need your consent for these cookies, but if you delete them the website or app may not function as it should).
- Analytical cookies: these cookies allow us to recognise new and returning visitors to our website and see how users engage with our website or app.
- Functionality cookies: these cookies are used to remember your preferences or customise your experience.
- Advertising cookies: these cookies are used by advertising networks to customise the advertising you see online based on your interests (you can agree to analytics cookies without agreeing to these cookies).
The cookies we use are as follows:
| Cookie | Type | Duration | Domain | Further info |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook (_fbp) | Advertising | 3 months | mybarrister.co.uk | Used by Facebook to deliver, measure and improve the relevancy of ads shown on Facebook and other websites using Facebook ads. |
| Drupal JavaScript Checker (has_js) | Functionality | Session | mybarrister.co.uk | Used by Drupal, the platform on which our website is based, to check whether JavaScript is enabled in your browser and to display the website differently if this is not the case. |
| Drupal User Session (SSESS[string]) | Functionality | 23 days | mybarrister.co.uk | Used by Drupal to link a user to a session so information can be passed between one page and the next. |
| Google Ads localStorage ([unique key]) | Advertising | Persistent (can be erased by deleting browser history) | googleadservices.com | Google Ads creates a unique key associated with your browser, enabling Google Ads to deliver, measure and improve the relevancy of ads shown across the Google Ads network. |
Your rights
Under UK and EU data protection laws, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:
Access: you have the right to be informed if your personal data is being used and the right to request a copy of the personal data held about you, together with certain information about the processing of such personal data, to check that we are holding it lawfully.
Correction: you have the right to ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data held about you.
Deletion: you have the right to ask us to delete or remove any personal data held about you where there is no good reason for us to continue holding it, or where you have exercised your right to object.
Restriction: you have the right to ask us to restrict how we hold your personal data, for example, to confirm its accuracy or our reasons for holding it.
Objection: you have the right to object to our holding of any personal data about you which is based on our legitimate interests or those of a third party, based on your particular circumstances. You also have the right to object to our holding your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
Portability: you have the right to receive, or request that we transfer, a copy of the personal data we hold about you in an electronic format where the basis of our holding such information is your consent or the performance of a contract, and the information is processed by automated means.
Complaints: you have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) or, if you are based in any EU member state, any other EU supervisory authority in relation to how we collect and use your personal data.
You will not have to pay any fee to exercise any of the above rights, although we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to comply with your request if any request is clearly unfounded or excessive. Where this is the case, we will let you know.
To protect the confidentiality of your personal data and that of other members of our community, we may need to ask you to verify your identity before fulfilling any request in relation to your personal data.
Questions or comments
If you have any questions or comments regarding this policy, please email us at privacy@mybarrister.co.uk.