Data Protection & Privacy Policy Statement

In May 2018 the law regarding how personal information is stored changed (GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation). M Markovitz Ltd takes its responsibilities regarding data protection seriously and has taken steps to ensure that all business practices are compliant with the new regulations. Who is holding your information? The information you have given is kept by M Markovitz Ltd, with relevant information (such as names, address, contact phone numbers, e-mail addresses, information about your business etc.). Where do we get data from? We only hold data provided to us by you. Initial information is collected on the ‘Open an Account’ form that you fill. We may also collect data that is emailed to us by you. Once collected it is transferred onto our main database. What information do we hold and why? We ask for contact information and details of your business as legitimately required to create and maintain an account for you with M Markovitz Ltd. We ask for reference information to allow us to perform any necessary checks before setting up an account. Where is your data stored? Electronic data is stored using either our database (held on a secure server) or on company computers/devices, all of which use Microsoft Exchange and are password protected. Any paper forms are securely stored inside a locked office. If we need to transfer your personal information to countries outside of the European Economic Area we will take proper steps to make sure that your information is protected by similar laws and safeguards. We will also inform you before transferring your information outside the EEA. This does not affect your rights under UK data protection legislation. Do we share your data? We do not sell or rent your personal information to any third party, that includes your name, email address, address or payment card details. However, we may share your information with select partners and categories of companies to provide you with the full range of our services, as set out below. We will only provide those companies with the information they need to deliver the service we have contracted them for, nothing more. - Companies that allow us to get your purchase to you, such as payment service providers or delivery companies - Selected manufacturers or suppliers we deal with, for the purposes of fulfilment of ‘direct to site’ orders, warranty, maintenance and safety compliance (such as product recalls) - Professional service providers such as marketing agencies and advertising partners who help us offer our products and services to you more effectively and efficiently - Document storage providers, and suppliers of other administrative functions - Credit reference agencies and finance partners, so we can help minimise the risk of fraud within our business and to our customers - Where we have a duty of disclosure due to compliance with legal obligations - To a prospective buyer in the event of a sale of one or more parts of our business How long do we retain your data? It is extremely rare that we destroy or delete records earlier than the required retention period. We have a statutory obligation to hold some records for a certain period of time e.g. staff records, account and transaction records etc. Therefore, a request for erasure (also known as the ‘right to be forgotten’ will always need to be discussed with our Data Protection Officer (Robert Turner). Accounts which are not used for longer than six months are automatically deemed as dormant and to re-open an account new checks will need to be carried out. Customers regularly request for accounts to be made ‘live’ again after this six month period; to facilitate this process account forms remain held and securely stored by M Markovitz Ltd. Should you decide you do not wish your information to be stored please inform us. Want to see what we hold about you? Under the new regulations you have the right to know what information we hold on you. Simply send an email to gdpr@markovitz.co.uk and we will provide copies of any data M Markovitz Ltd holds on you. You can also contact us if you believe we have information we should not be keeping, is out of date or otherwise wrong to be stored. Updated October 2019