Privacy Policy (Venue)

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how we collect and process your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website or by separate electronic communications such as email or in hard copy writing or by phone, when you sign up to a newsletter, purchase a product or service or take part in a competition.

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.

Merchant Taylors’ Catering Limited is the Data Controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as, “MTCatering”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).

Any changes we make to our privacy notice in the future will be posted on our website, so please ensure that you check our privacy notice wording from time to time to ensure that you are aware of any recent changes to the policy.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please inform the person who is your usual contact with us, if your personal data changes during your relationship with us. If you are unsure who your usual contact is, please instead inform us of the change by emailing data@merchant-taylors.co.uk

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 or policies. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

A Data Processor means some other organisation who processes personal data on our behalf, but which simply carries out our instructions rather than taking any decisions about what to do with the personal data. An example might be the organisation which provides us with a software licence to use our events booking software package. We may input your personal data into their events booking software which technically counts as them ‘processing it’ on our behalf, but the software package itself and the organisation which licences it to us do not take any decisions about what happens to that data. As a Data Controller, we have to have a written contract in place with every Data Processor we use, containing provisions such as that the Data Processor must only act on our instructions. 

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. 

Consent means an express active step taken by you, indicating agreement. 

External Third Parties means any of the following: 

Service providers acting as Data Processors for us who provide IT and/or system administration services and/or assist us to perform our contracts with you. 

Our professional advisers acting as Data Processors for us or joint Data Controllers with us, including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services. 

HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as Data Processors for us or joint Data Controllers with us based in the United Kingdom.  

Various third party agencies and listing websites that may send us personal data. 

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about a living 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 includes: 

Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender. 

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

Profile Data includes purchases or orders made by you, 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 may 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. That is because Aggregated Data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. 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. 

Our website collects Technical Data about your usage, but not in a format which allows you to be identified by anyone (including us) as the individual to whom the data relates: this 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. 

We are required by law to treat certain categories of personal data with even more care than usual. These are called sensitive or special categories of personal data and different lawful bases apply to them. We do not deliberately 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. 

However, we may collect personal data about your dietary requirements and food allergies if you are a guest at an event where we are serving food. If that information is identified by reference to you, rather than anonymous, it may in turn imply that you have a particular health condition or religious belief. Examples would be if we are told that you specifically by name require halal food, or a meal suitable for someone with diabetes. For that reason, we treat data about your dietary requirements and food allergies as Special Category Personal Data if it is identified by reference to you (ie, that it is specifically you who needs to be served a particular type of food), rather than anonymised (eg, a buffet lunch where the event organiser has asked us to provide a platter of food suitable for people with diabetes, but has not told us the names of the individual guests it is intended for). 

If we collect, hold, use or otherwise process your Special Category Personal Data, it is on the legal ground of your Consent. Where you have supplied this data directly to us (eg, you have told us your dietary requirement because you are a wedding guest at Merchant Taylors’ Hall), your bringing that data to our attention is the active step by you which indicates your Consent. The active step by you is you bringing your dietary requirements to the attention of your event organiser (eg, your employer or conference organiser) for use in connection with event(s) they are organising, if the context in which we have been given the data about your dietary requirements by the event organizer is in connection with you attending an event at Merchant Taylors’ Hall or staffed by our employees or contractors somewhere else. 

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time. 

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

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

• apply for our products or services; 
• create an account on our website; 
• subscribe to our service or publications; 
• request marketing to be sent to you; 
• enter a competition, promotion or 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. As explained above, the Technical Data is not of a type from which you can be identified. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy for further details. 

We use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out such things as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way that does not directly identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. 

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. 

Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data, other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via electronic means such as email or text message or in relation to Special Category Personal Data.. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us. 

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. Please see part 1 (‘Important Information, and Definitions’) and part 2 (‘Personal Data’) of this notice for the meaning of words and phrases used in this table. 

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. 

Type of data: (a) Identity (b) Contact 

Lawful ground we rely on: Performance of a contract with you 

Type of data: (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Marketing and Communications (d) any Special Categories/Sensitive Personal Data – see explanation above of the circumstances in which we might hold Special Categories/Sensitive Personal Data about you. 

Lawful ground we rely on: (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interest (c) Consent, in the case of Special Category Personal Data. 

Type of data: (a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy notice (b) Asking you to leave a review or take a survey 

Type of data: (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Marketing and Communication 

Lawful ground we rely on: (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our products/services) 

Type of data: (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and COmmunications 

Lawful ground we rely on: (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them and grow our business) 

Type of data: (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Technical 

Lawful ground we rely on: (a) 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) (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation 

Type of data: (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communications (f) Technical  

Lawful ground we rely on: 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) 

Type of data: (a) Technical (b) Usage 

Lawful ground: 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) 

Type of data: (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Technical (d) Usage (e) Profile 

Lawful ground we rely on: Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business). (But please see additional information below for safeguards about the circumstances in which we may send you marketing communications by an electronic method.) 

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what 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). 

Hard copy (paper) marketing communications 

You will receive hard copy (paper) marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased goods or services from us or if you provided us with your details when you entered a competition or registered for a promotion and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing. 

Electronic marketing communications 

We will never send you marketing communications in your personal capacity by an electronic method (eg, e-mail) unless you have expressly consented to that (for example, by ticking a box or by taking some other active step which can clearly and reasonably be interpreted as you giving express consent). If you have given your express consent to that method of marketing, you are entitled to withdraw it at any time by sending an email to that effect to data@merchant-taylors.co.uk 

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any third party for marketing purposes. If we do not have your consent to that, we will not do it. 

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. All the cookies on our website are either to track user behaviour but not in a way from which the individual can be identified by anyone including us, or are necessary to make the website function properly. Please see our cookie policy for further detail. 

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. 

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. 

• Our Data Processors 
• External Third Parties as set out in the Definitions 
• 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 (our Data Processors) 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. As explained above, we have written contracts in place with our Data Processors setting out these obligations. 

Some of our external third parties are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data may involve a transfer of data outside the EEA. For example, if we use a cloud-based software package, it is possible that your personal data may be hosted on cloud servers outside the EEA. 

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

• We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission. 
• Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe. 
• Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the Europe and the US. 

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. 

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. 

Whilst we undertake periodic reviews of data and may delete certain personal data from time to time, we take the view that most of the personal data we hold is relevant to our day to day business, for example, evaluating the success of marketing campaigns and that we have a legitimate interest in keeping this personal data. As set out in the section on Your Legal Rights below, you have the legal right to challenge our view that we have a legitimate interest in retaining personal data for this and other business-related reasons. 

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see the section on Your Legal Rights 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, because it no longer constitutes personal data. 

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Some of these rights are not absolute, ie there may be circumstances in which we do not have to comply with them. For more information on which these are, please see the Information Commissioner’s Office website: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/  

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. 

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us at the address stated at the start of this Privacy Notice. 

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. 

YOUR RIGHT TO MAKE COMPLAINTS 

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, via data@merchant-taylors.co.uk.