Privacy Policy

Welcome to MDD Forensic Accountants’ (“MDD” “Matson, Driscoll & Damico”, “us”, “we” and “our”) Privacy Notice.

This Policy primarily explains how we will process your personal data to the extent that such data comes within the scope of the GDPR.  Data that is outside the scope of the GDPR will be processed and maintained in accordance with local data protection requirements.

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data.  This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from) and when you instruct us and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

This privacy notice is provided in a layered format so you can click through to the specific areas set out below. Please also use the Glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy notice.

1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE

PURPOSE OF THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how MDD collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website, and your instruction of us, including any data you may provide through this website when you instruct us.

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

MDD is made up of different legal entities, details of which can be found here. This privacy notice is issued on behalf of the MDD Group so when we mention MDD, “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice, we are referring to the relevant company in the MDD Group responsible for processing your data. We will let you know which entity will be the controller for your data when you instruct us. MDD is the controller and responsible for this website.

We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice please contact the data privacy manager using the details set out below.

CONTACT DETAILS

Our full details are:

Full name of legal entity:  Matson, Driscoll & Damico UK LLP
Name or title of Data Privacy Manager:  Paul RC Isaac (Partner)
Email address:  pisaac@mdd.com
Postal address: Marlow House, 1A Lloyds Avenue, London EC3N 3AA
Telephone number: 0203 384 5499

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

This version was last updated on 25 March 2019 and historic versions can be obtained by contacting us.

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.

2. 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, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, title and gender.
• Contact Data includes billing address, business address, email address and telephone numbers.
• Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of forensic accounting services which you have instructed us to provide.
• 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.
• Profile Data includes your username and password, services you purchased, feedback and survey responses.
• Usage Data includes information about how you use our website 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.

IF YOU FAIL TO PROVIDE PERSONAL DATA

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.

3. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?

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

• Direct interactions. You may give us your name, title, business address, emails address and telephone numbers or other personal data which is relevant to an instruction we are carrying out when instructed by you, an agent or representative engaged by you or by your insurer. Such data is usually received by you filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
• Instruct us and during the currency of the instruction;
• Send information to us as a part of our investigations into an investigation you have asked us to perform or an insurance claim you have made;
• Complete our “New Assignment”, “Request a call back” and “Enquiry” form on our website;
• Create and account on our website in order to use our IRB calculator and Duxbury Calculator;
• Subscribe to our publications
• Request marketing to be sent to you; or
• Give us feedback, which includes comments left on our website blogs / articles.
• 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 server logs
• Third parties or publicly available sources.We may receive anonymised data from you from third parties as set out below:
  (a)  analytics providers such as Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager;
  (b)  advertising services such as Google Ads.

4. 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, your agent or representative or with your insured so that they are able to perform their contract 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 email or text message. 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.

MARKETING

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising.  All our electronic direct marketing communications will include unsubscribe / opt-out options.  We will not contact you again should you unsubscribe / opt out of our marketing communications.  You will need to contact us directly should you wish to re-subscribe to any marketing communications that you may have previously unsubscribed from / opted-out of.

PROMOTIONAL OFFERS FROM US

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).

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or instructed 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 the MDD group of companies for marketing purposes.

OPTING OUT

You can ask us 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.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of forensic accountancy services you have instructed us to provide to you.

COOKIES

We use a number of different cookies on our website to help us improve performance.  Cookies are small text files that help us anonymously identify your browser from page to page and from visit to visit.  If you do not know what cookies are, or how to control or delete them, then we recommend you visit http://www.aboutcookies.org for detailed guidance.  Alternatively, you can search the internet for other independent information on cookies.  The following information describes the cookies we use on this site and what they are used for.

When you land on our site for the first time you will be presented with a cookie banner explaining that we use cookies on our website, with an option to opt-out.  By clicking “Ok” and/or your continued use of the site, you consent to us using cookies.

If you do not approve of this policy, you can “Reject” the cookie banner which means that we will stop tracking you through cookies.  Alternatively you can delete our cookies having visited the site, or can browse the site using your browser’s anonymous usage setting (such as  “Incognito” in  Chrome, “InPrivate” in Internet Explorer, “Private Browsing” in Firefox and Safari).  You can also change your browser settings to disable cookies or to be advised when cookies are sent to your computer.  However, this may impair your use of and access to our website so we advise that you leave cookies enabled.

Google Analytics

We use this to understand how the site is being used to improve the user experience. User data is all anonymous.

You can find out more about Google’s position on privacy regarding its analytics service at http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/analytics/privacyoverview.html

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.

5. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

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.

• Internal Third Parties, namely other companies in the MDD Group, who are based in the USA, Canada, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Brazil, Dubai, Germany and France, and provide similar forensic accounting services and IT and system administration services.
• External Third Parties, namely:
• Professional advisors, acting as processors or joint controllers, including lawyers, bankers, auditors, insurers and reinsurers who provide legal, banking, accounting, insurance and consultancy 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.
• 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.

6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

We share your personal data within the MDD Group. This will involve transferring your data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

We ensure your personal data is protected by requiring all our group companies to follow the same rules when processing your personal data. These rules are called “binding corporate rules”. For further details, see European Commission: Binding corporate rules.

Many of our external third parties are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) 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:

• 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. For further details, see European Commission: Adequacy of the protection of personal data in non-EU countries.
• 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. For further details, see European Commission: Model contracts for the transfer of personal data to third countries.
• 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. For further details, see European Commission: EU-US Privacy Shield.

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

7. PRIVACY SHIELD POLICY

This Privacy Shield Policy describes how MDD collects, uses, and discloses certain personally identifiable information that we receive in the US from the EEA (“EEA Personal Data”). This Policy applies to the US affiliated entity: Matson, Driscoll and Damico LLP

MDD recognizes that the EEA has established strict protections regarding the handling of EEA Personal Data, including requirements to provide adequate protection for EEA Personal Data transferred outside of the EEA. To provide adequate protection for certain EEA Personal Data about you received in the US, MDD has elected to self-certify to the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework administered by the US Department of Commerce (“Privacy Shield”).

MDD adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles of Notice, Choice, Accountability for Onward Transfer, Security, Data Integrity and Purpose Limitation, Access, and Recourse, Enforcement, and Liability.

For purposes of enforcing compliance with the Privacy Shield, MDD is subject to the investigatory and enforcement authority of the US Federal Trade Commission.

For more information about the Privacy Shield, see the US Department of Commerce’s Privacy Shield website located at: https://www.privacyshield.gov. To review MDD’s representation on the Privacy Shield list, see the US Department of Commerce’s Privacy Shield self-certification list.

Personal Data Collection and Use

We describe the categories of EEA Personal Data that we may receive in the US as well as the purposes for which we use that EEA Personal Data at section 4 above. MDD will only process EEA Personal Data in ways that are compatible with the purpose that MDD collected it for, or for purposes you later authorise. Before we use your EEA Personal Data for a purpose that is materially different than the purpose we collected it for or that you later authorised, we will provide you with the opportunity to opt out. MDD maintains reasonable procedures to help ensure that EEA Personal Data is reliable for its intended use, accurate, complete, and current.

Data Transfers to Third Parties

Third-Party Agents or Service Providers. We may transfer EEA Personal Data to our third-party agents or service providers who perform functions on our behalf as described in section 5 above. Where required by the Privacy Shield, we enter into written agreements with those third-party agents and service providers requiring them to provide the same level of protection the Privacy Shield requires and limiting their use of the data to the specified services provided on our behalf. We take reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure that third-party agents and service providers process EEA Personal Data in accordance with our Privacy Shield obligations and to stop and remediate any unauthorized processing. Under certain circumstances, we may remain liable for the acts of our third-party agents or service providers who perform services on our behalf for their handling of EEA Personal Data that we transfer to them.

In some cases we may transfer EEA Personal Data to unaffiliated third-party data controllers. These third parties do not act as agents or service providers and are not performing functions on our behalf. We may transfer your EEA Personal Data to third-party data controllers for the purposes described at section 5 above.  We will only provide your EEA Personal Data to third-party data controllers where you have not opted-out of such disclosures. We enter into written contracts with any unaffiliated third-party data controllers requiring them to provide the same level of protection for EEA Personal Data the Privacy Shield requires. We also limit their use of your EEA Personal Data so that it is consistent with any consent you have provided and with the notices you have received.

If we transfer your EEA Personal Data to one of our affiliated entities within our corporate group, we will take steps to ensure that your EEA Personal Data is protected with the same level of protection the Privacy Shield requires.

Disclosures for National Security or Law Enforcement

Under certain circumstances, we may be required to disclose your EEA Personal Data in response to valid requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.

Security

MDD maintains reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect EEA Personal Data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction in accordance with the Privacy Shield.

Access Rights

You may have the right to access the EEA Personal Data that we hold about you and to request that we correct, amend, or delete it if it is inaccurate or processed in violation of the Privacy Shield. These access rights may not apply in some cases, including where providing access is unreasonably burdensome or expensive under the circumstances or where it would violate the rights of someone other than the individual requesting access. If you would like to request access to, correction, amendment, or deletion of your EEA Personal Data, you can submit a written request to the contact information provided below. We may request specific information from you to confirm your identity. In some circumstances we may charge a reasonable fee for access to your information.

Questions or Complaints

You can direct any questions or complaints about the use or disclosure of your EEA Personal Data to us at pkarutz@mdd.com. You may also contact our EEA affiliate with any questions or concerns. We will investigate and attempt to resolve any complaints or disputes regarding the use or disclosure of your EEA Personal Data within 45 days of receiving your complaint. For any unresolved complaints, we have agreed to cooperate with the EU data protection authorities. If you are unsatisfied with the resolution of your complaint, you may contact the EU data protection authorities at edps@edps.europa.eu for further information and assistance.

Binding Arbitration

You may have the option to select binding arbitration for the resolution of your complaint under certain circumstances, provided you have taken the following steps: (1) raised your compliant directly with MDD and provided us the opportunity to resolve the issue; (2) made use of the independent dispute resolution mechanism identified above; and (3) raised the issue through the relevant data protection authority and allowed the US Department of Commerce an opportunity to resolve the complaint at no cost to you. For more information on binding arbitration, see US Department of Commerce’s Privacy Shield Framework: Annex I (Binding Arbitration).

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Shield Policy or would like to request access to your EEA Personal Data, please contact us.

Changes To This Policy

We reserve the right to amend this Policy from time to time consistent with the Privacy Shield’s requirements.

Effective Date: 25 May 2018

Last modified: 25 March 2019

8. DATA SECURITY

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.

9. DATA RETENTION

HOW LONG WILL YOU USE MY PERSONAL 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.

Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us.

10. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data:

• Request access to your personal data.
• Request correction of your personal data.
• Request erasure of your personal data.
• Object to processing of your personal data.
• Request restriction of processing your personal data.
• Request transfer of your personal data.
• Right to withdraw consent.

For further information in relation to these rights, please see 10. Glossary.  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.

11. GLOSSARY

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.

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.

12. LEGAL DISCLAIMER

The material provided on this website is for general information only and does not constitute professional advice. No liability is accepted by MDD for any loss caused as a result of accessing this site. The material and layout of this website are protected by copyright. All rights, including the authors’ moral rights, are expressly reserved. Neither the whole nor any part of the contents or the layout of this website may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or by electronic or digital transmission, without the prior written consent of MDD.

Other sites linked from or to this site and references to any other organisation, company or individual are not endorsed by, the responsibility of, or imply affiliation with MDD (unless clearly and specifically stated otherwise at the time).

In every jurisdiction in which MDD conducts business, it does so as a corporation, limited liability company, or other business entity whose shareholders, members or owners are not liable for the debts or other liabilities of the company under local law.