Formation Direct Ltd understands that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used and shared online. We respect and value the privacy of everyone who visits and/or makes use of this website and will only collect and use personal data in ways described here, and in a manner that is consistent with our obligations and your rights under the law.
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and ensure that you understand it. Your acceptance of our Privacy Policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of our Site and/or services. If you do not accept and agree with this Privacy Policy, you must stop using our Site and services immediately.
1.Definitions and Interpretation
In this Policy, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
- “Account”
- — the legal entity whether limited company, LLC, or any other type of legal person being formed and/or administered for you by us under the Contract.
- “Cookie”
- — a small text file placed on your computer or device by our Site when you visit certain parts of our Site and/or when you use certain features of our Site. Details of the Cookies used by our Site are set out in Section 13 below.
- “Data Protection Regulation”
- — all legislation in force in the United Kingdom from time to time relating to data protection and privacy including, but not limited to, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendment Etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, and any successor legislation relating to data protection and privacy.
- “Personal data”
- — any and all data that relates to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified from that data. In this case, it means personal data that you give to us via our Site or otherwise.
- “We / Us / Our”
- — Formation Direct Ltd.
2.Information About Us
Our Site is owned and operated by Formation Direct Ltd, a limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 13631785, whose registered address is 5 Torrens Street, Unit H, London, EC1V 1NQ, United Kingdom. VAT number: 235460812.
3.What Does This Policy Cover?
This Privacy Policy applies to your use of our Site and/or services including but not limited to in your personal capacity or as a representative of a legal entity. Our Site may contain links to other websites, and as part of our services we offer to provide references to third-party suppliers including but not limited to financial institutions, accountants, accountancy and bookkeeping service providers, auditors, telephone answering and post handling service providers, tax advisers and/or other similar third-party service providers. Please note that we have no control over how your personal data is collected, stored, or used by other websites and third-party suppliers. We advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites and third-party suppliers before providing any data to them.
4.Your Rights
As a data subject, you have the following rights under the Data Protection Regulation, which this Policy and our use of personal data have been designed to uphold:
If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, please contact us using the details provided in Section 15 and we will do our best to solve the problem. If we are unable to help, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the United Kingdom’s supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
- The right to be informed about our collection and use of personal data.
- The right of access to the personal data we hold about you.
- The right to rectification if any personal data we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete.
- The right to be forgotten — the right to ask us to delete any personal data we hold about you.
- The right to restrict (i.e. prevent) the processing of your personal data.
- The right to data portability — obtaining a copy of your personal data to re-use with another service or organisation.
- The right to object to us using your personal data for particular purposes.
- Rights with respect to automated decision making and profiling (where applicable for EU/EEA residents).
5.What Personal Data Do We Collect?
Depending upon your use of our Site and/or services, we may collect some or all of the following personal data as well as non-identifiable web browsing information:
We do not collect financial information such as credit/debit card numbers. Our payment provider may collect such information — please refer to their privacy policy for further details.
6.How Do We Use Your Personal Data?
All personal data is processed and stored securely, for no longer than is necessary in light of the reason(s) for which it was first collected. We will comply with our obligations and safeguard your rights under the Data Protection Regulation at all times. Our collection and use of your personal data will always have a lawful basis. Specifically, we may use your data for the following purposes:
Data Retention. We shall as a default keep your data on file for 5 years from your last activity. Where we supply products and services to you, records may be kept for 7 years after ceasing to provide the service, in order to comply with anti-money laundering regulations.
With your permission and/or where permitted by law, we may also use your data for marketing purposes which may include contacting you by email with information, news, and offers on our products and services. We will not send you any unsolicited marketing or spam and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that we fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under the Data Protection Regulation.
You have the right to withdraw your consent to us using your personal data at any time, and to request that we delete it.
- Providing and managing your Account.
- Providing and managing your access to our Site.
- Personalising and tailoring your experience on our Site.
- Supplying our products and services to you.
- Personalising and tailoring our products and services for you.
- Replying to communications from you.
- Supplying you with emails that you have opted into. You may unsubscribe at any time.
- Market research.
- Analysing your use of our Site and gathering feedback to enable us to continually improve our Site and your user experience.
7.How and Where Do We Store Your Personal Data?
We only keep your personal data for as long as we need to use it as described above. To protect your data, we take a number of important measures, including the following:
Limiting access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors, and other third parties with a legitimate need to know, and ensuring that they are subject to duties of confidentiality.
Implementing procedures for dealing with data breaches (the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, your personal data) including notifying you and/or the ICO where we are legally required to do so.
We may transfer some or all of your personal data to public authorities including but not limited to Companies House and HMRC. We may also transfer data to trusted third-party service providers who assist us in operating our business, including accountants, auditors, telephone answering and post handling service providers, tax advisers, and financial institutions, provided you have authorised us to do so by ordering particular products or services.
Where personal data is transferred to countries outside the United Kingdom or the EEA, we will take appropriate steps to ensure it is treated just as safely and securely as it would be under the Data Protection Regulation, including the use of standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission or binding corporate rules within our group of companies.
8.Do We Share Your Personal Data?
We may share your data with other companies in our group in order to supply services attached to our core business. We may also contract with third parties to supply products and services to you on our behalf. Where any of your data is required for such a purpose, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights and our obligations under the Data Protection Regulation.
As company formation agents we must comply with UK Anti-Money Laundering regulations. This requires us to carry out client due diligence to verify the identity of our clients. We refer clients to third-party providers for this purpose. The third-party provider collects personal data directly from clients and their privacy policies govern that collection and processing.
We may compile anonymised statistics about the use of our Site and services. Such data will not include any personally identifying information and will only be shared and used within the bounds of the Data Protection Regulation.
In certain circumstances, we may be legally required to share certain data held by us, for example where we are involved in legal proceedings or complying with a court order or governmental requirement.
We do not sell your personal data to third parties for marketing purposes.
Companies House & Government
As required by law for company registration and statutory compliance.
Identity Verification (KYC/AML)
Third-party providers carrying out mandatory identity and anti-money laundering checks.
Payment Processors
To securely handle your payments.
IT & Hosting Providers
Who assist in operating our platform and systems.
Professional Advisers
Accountants, auditors, tax advisers, and legal advisers.
Financial Institutions
Banks and merchant account providers where you have ordered a referral service.
9.What Happens If Our Business Changes Hands?
We may, from time to time, expand or reduce our business and this may involve the sale and/or the transfer of control of all or part of our business. Any personal data that you have provided will, where it is relevant to any part of our business that is being transferred, be transferred along with that part. The new owner or newly controlling party will, under the terms of this Privacy Policy, be permitted to use that data only for the same purposes for which it was originally collected by us.
10.How Can You Control Your Personal Data?
In addition to your rights under the Data Protection Regulation set out in Section 4, when you submit personal data to us via our Site or otherwise, you may be given options to restrict our use of your data. In particular, we aim to give you strong controls on our use of your data for direct marketing purposes, including the ability to opt-out of receiving emails from us by unsubscribing using the links provided in our emails.
11.Your Right to Withhold Information
You may access certain areas of our Site without providing any data at all. However, to use all features and functions available on our Site you may be required to submit or allow for the collection of certain data. You may restrict our use of Cookies through your browser settings at any time — see Section 13 for more information.
12.How Can You Access Your Personal Data?
You have the right to ask for a copy of any personal data held about you. Under the Data Protection Regulation, no fee is payable and we will provide any and all information in response to your request free of charge. Please contact us for more details using the contact information provided in Section 15.
13.Our Use of Cookies
Our Site may place and access certain first-party Cookies on your computer or device. We use Cookies to facilitate and improve your experience of our Site and to provide and improve our products and services. By using our Site you may also receive certain third-party Cookies, for example from advertising or analytics platforms such as Google Analytics and Facebook.
All Cookies used by and on our Site are used in accordance with the Data Protection Regulation. Before Cookies are placed on your computer or device, you will be shown a notification requesting your consent. You may deny consent to the placing of non-essential Cookies; however certain features of our Site may not function fully or as intended.
Our Site uses Google Analytics to help us understand how users interact with our Site. This enables us to continually improve our Site and the products and services offered through it. You do not have to allow us to use these Cookies, however whilst our use of them does not pose any risk to your privacy or your safe use of our Site, they do enable us to improve your experience.
In addition to the controls that we provide, you can choose to enable or disable Cookies in your internet browser. You can also choose to delete Cookies on your computer or device at any time, however you may lose certain settings and preferences as a result. We recommend that you keep your internet browser and operating system up-to-date.
14.Recording of Telephone Calls
Telephone calls may be recorded and monitored by us for training and quality assurance purposes. This Privacy Policy applies to all personal data collected and/or processed during such telephone calls.
15.Contacting Us
Formation Direct Ltd, 5 Torrens Street, Unit H, London, EC1V 1NQ. Company Number: 13631785. VAT Number: 235460812. Email: info@formationdirect.co.uk. Telephone: +44 (0)207 689 7888. Website: www.formationdirect.co.uk
Please ensure that your query is clear, particularly if it is a request for information about the data we hold about you. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): ico.org.uk.
16.Changes to Our Privacy Policy
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time (for example, if the law changes). Any changes will be immediately posted on our Site and you will be deemed to have accepted the terms of the Privacy Policy on your first use of our Site following the alterations. We recommend that you check this page regularly to keep up-to-date.