Earthwave’s Privacy Policy
Earthwave Ltd are committed to ensuring protection of all personal information that we hold, to provide and to protect all such data, in line with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and under laws such as the Data Protection Act 2018 and Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.
Earthwave Ltd are dedicated to safeguarding personal information under our control and in maintaining a system that meets our obligations under the regulations. Our practice is summarised below.
Personal data we collect.
Personal data is any data which may identify a person or be identified as relating to them. For example, name, address, phone number and email address. We will sometimes need to collect this information for those individuals looking to work with us, or engage with us, but we will only collect the personal data we need, and will only retain it for as long as is necessary.
Personal data that is provided.
This includes information given to us when interacting with us, for example:
- Personal details – name, address, phone number, email address, etc.
- Financial details – bank name, bank address, bank account number and sort code
- Technical information used in projects or interactions with us – account credentials, concepts, logos, drawings, designs, documents, spreadsheets and so on.
Personal data created by involvement with us.
Activities and involvement with us may result in personal data being created. This could include project and payment details, access details, documentation and so on.
How we use personal data.
We align ourselves with the requirements of the UK GDPR (The Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019), which sets high standards for personal data protection.
Personal data provided to us will be used for the purposes of carrying out our business, in a transparent manner, in accordance with any preferences expressed by the owner of that data. We have listed the main uses of the personal data we collect below:
- Sales: We deliver research, development and software engineering projects. If we have been contracted to provide these services, we may need to collect personal data to carry out these services. This may include names, addresses and phone numbers, and business-sensitive data and information.
- Accounting: We are required by law to keep accurate and up to date accounts of our business transactions. Any company or individual interacting with us in this way may be added to our accounting system.
- Marketing: We may occasionally run marketing campaigns; within the campaign all subscribers will be given the option to opt out of receiving any further marketing material.
- Recruitment and Employment: Anyone employed by us, will be required to provide personal data, including what is deemed to be ‘sensitive personal data’; such data may include but is not limited to health information, details regarding family, and information relating to criminal convictions. This data is stored on internal, secure systems, compliant with privacy and data protection requirements. As employers we have responsibilities with regards to this data; we have contractual responsibilities which arise from our contract of employment, outlining data relating to payroll, bank details, addresses, sickness and absence. We also have statutory responsibilities imposed upon us by law relating to tax and national insurance. Internally, we also have management responsibilities, which are necessary for the functioning of the business. This includes data relating to employment, training, absence, disciplinary matters, email and phone number.
- Monitoring of the usage of our products and services: In cases where a user has created an account for use with an Earthwave product or service (and thereby consented to our monitoring of their usage of that product or service), we will store pseudonymised data describing that user’s activities. In the course of further investigations, and with the user’s explicit consent, we may obtain and store personally identifiable information linked to the user’s pseudonym, thus allowing us to attribute their usage of our products and services to their real-world identity.
- Disclosure of Personal Data to other bodies: To carry out the running of our business day-to-day, provide employee benefits and to fulfil the requirements of the projects we work on, we may sometimes need to disclose data to other bodies or third-party suppliers. Where we share information with other bodies, we will ensure that they have adequate procedures for records to ensure that the information is managed in accordance with the relevant legislation and regulatory guidance.
Any individual or company who have interacted with us can contact us at any time to change or discuss their privacy preferences, using the details below:
Via email: write to Earthwave Data Controller at datacontroller@earthwave.co.uk
Via post: write to Earthwave Data Controller using the address on our contact page.
Rights under GDPR.
Under the UK GDPR, where we are using data under consent, the individual has the right to withdraw that consent at any time. They also have the right to ask us to stop using personal data for marketing purposes. This request must be submitted to us via the contact details above.
Subject access requests.
Subject Access Requests can be submitted via the contact details above. There is no charge for making this request, although verification of identity will be required. Earthwave will respond within 30 days of verifying the identity.
Retaining information.
Any personal data provided to us will be retained in line with our Document and Data Management and Retention Policy, and with adherence to any potential audit required by law, after which time it will be permanently deleted. We may also disclose personal information to third parties if we are compelled to by law, or to comply with any legal obligation.
How data is secured.
Earthwave Ltd takes the privacy and security of individuals and their personal information very seriously and we take every reasonable measure to protect and secure the personal data that we process. We have robust information security policies and procedures in place to protect personal information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction.
GDPR roles and employees.
Earthwave has designated a Data Controller to ensure compliance with the data protection Regulation. The Data Controller is responsible for promoting awareness of the GDPR across the organisation, assessing our GDPR compliance, identifying any gaps and implementing any new policies, procedures and measures.
Earthwave understands that continuous employee awareness and understanding is vital to the continued compliance of the GDPR and have involved our employees in the creation and ongoing development of our GDPR processes.
How to complain.
Please contact us regarding any issues around the use of personal data via the contact details above; we would welcome the opportunity to resolve any problem or query. If the resolution is not satisfactory, the issue should be raised with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), who are contactable via their website.
Our use of cookies.
Earthwave intentionally does not use analytics or performance cookies to track any anonymous website users on any website hosted by us. As a result, our websites do not contain cookie consent banners. We do, however, use cookies to track the activities of users who have logged into some Earthwave products or services, thereby granting their consent for the use of cookies. Where cookies are used, Earthwave’s users are clearly informed upon account creation that the creation of an account constitutes consent to the use of cookies. The kind of activity these monitor include, but are not limited to, how many people visit the website, how long people spend viewing the website, and which pages are visited for the longest period. No personal identifiable data is collected with these cookies.
Privacy within Earthwave products and services.
Additional privacy policies are available for individual Earthwave products and services, which record purely the privacy related information handled by each product or service individually. Currently, two such policies exist: one for Specklia and one for cs2eo.org.
Storage of information.
Earthwave is based in the UK. Our data storage and hosting services are based in the UK, US and Belgium, with reputable providers. Data of relevance to Earthwave is processed in the US and within other EU countries by our suppliers and contractors.