Harmer Editorial Ltd – privacy and cookies

Last reviewed: 5 May 2022

This privacy policy explains the way Harmer Editorial Ltd handles personal data and keeps it secure, and how, in doing so, we comply with our legal obligations. It also contains information about our use of cookies.

Personal data
To carry out our work, we collect the following privacy information directly from our customers and sub-contractors:

  • Individuals’ first and last names
  • Organisation name
  • Organisation address, phone numbers and email address
  • Business records such as bank details, VAT number, charity or company registration
  • In the case of sub-contractors, we might also ask for proof of self-employment and registration with HMRC

We collect privacy information directly from our customers, in order to:

  • Carry out the writing or editorial services you asked us to do
  • Send you an invoice for the work we’ve done
  • Maintain a successful business relationship
  • Contact you in relation to our contractual agreement
  • Keep certain records for seven years as required by law or the tax authorities

We may share your personal data with third-party providers (our sub-contractors), with your consent, in order to speed up delivery of writing or editorial services or to continue to provide such services when we are unavailable.

We collect privacy information from sub-contractors, in order to:

  • Carry out the service the client has asked for
  • Pay you for your work
  • Maintain a successful business relationship
  • Contact you in relation to our contractual agreement
  • Keep certain records for seven years as required by law or the tax authorities

How we collect personal data
Harmer Editorial collects personal data:

  • Directly from you such as when you or your organisation contracts with us to provide writing and editing services.

Information that we are required to hold for legal and tax reasons, will be deleted from our systems after the seven years that we are obliged to hold it. All other information will be deleted after two years unless you request deletion before that.

Safeguarding your information
We are committed to the security of your personal data. We hold personal data in several places and have in place a range of measures to ensure it is secure:

  • All paper records are secured in locked filing cabinets in alarmed premises
  • All recordings of any telephone interviews are deleted as soon as they are transcribed to Microsoft Word – and the Word documents kept on a secure server
  • All our paper waste is shredded or burned – unless it has to be kept for seven years as required by law or for tax reasons
  • All contact details are kept on a secure database unless otherwise instructed by you to remove it (subject to there being no legal or tax reasons to keep it)
  • We use complex, long, random passwords containing words, symbols and numbers, and two-factor authentication when available, to keep your data safe
  • Passwords are restricted to the director of Harmer Editorial and, when required, our outsourced IT provider Magikos IT
  • All our sub-contractors understand the importance of confidentiality and sign sub-contractor agreements with us
  • Our IT data is protected by business-class antivirus and disk encryption.

Website users and cookies
Harmer Editorial Ltd uses cookies on its website. Cookies do not give us access to your computer or information about you, except for data you choose to share with us. You can change your browser settings at any time to decline cookies.

Traffic log cookies identify which pages are used and this information helps us to analyse data about traffic to our site, so we can improve it. Afterward the data is removed.

When you link to other websites from our site, we do not have any control over them. This privacy policy is solely for our website not theirs. We are not responsible for other websites’ protection and the privacy of any information you provide while visiting them.

Identity and contact details of controller
To ensure the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up-to-date, please tell us of any changes as soon as you can. Alison Moore, director of Harmer Editorial Ltd, is responsible for handling and controlling personal data held by us. The best way to get in touch is through email at: alison@harmereditorial.co.uk

Or you can write to our registered offices: Harmer Editorial Ltd, 587 Reading Road, Wokingham, Berkshire, RG41 5HQ, UK.

Alison is the person to ask:

  • If you believe the information we hold is incorrect
  • If you want to see the information we hold on you
  • If you want us to correct or delete the information we have on you
  • If you want to complain about our handling of your personal data, you can ask to have the complaint investigated.

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office: https://ico.org.uk/