Privacy Policy

Personal Data

Your personal information is protected under law (in the UK it’s the Data Protection Act 2018 and is often referred to as “UK GDPR”). This privacy notice explains how we protect the personal information we use when delivering our services to you.

If you have a question about how we use and protect your personal information please email us at info@whitedeerlegal.co.uk

How we use your information

We collect your personal information by phone, email and in writing. We will use your information to draft your will and ensure it meets your personal needs. We will keep computer copies of information while writing your will, and to ensure proper records are kept of your requirements and wishes.

If you have asked us to store your will, we will retain it for as long as our agreement states.

If you have contacted us about writing a will, we will add you to our newsletters to keep you up to date on any legal or financial developments we think may be relevant to you and your will plans.

Why do we need to collect and store personal data?

In order for us to do any of the above, we must collect and store your data firstly for correspondence purposes. We will ensure that the information collected will only be used for its intended purpose and does not constitute an invasion of your privacy.  

If you have enquired about a will, or had will-writing services from us, White Deer Legal may contact you with information on the latest news in legal or inheritance matters, or to let you know about special offers.

What is our lawful basis for using your personal information?

For our clients, we use your personal information because we have a contractual obligation to deliver will-writing services to you (this includes people who enquire about our services.) If the information you share with us includes “special category” material (related to health, beliefs, etc.) then we will ask for your consent to use that information.

For clients’ relatives and beneficiaries, we may use personal information because we have a legitimate interest in writing a will for our client.

We use your consent to include you on our newsletter and marketing email lists. You can withdraw your consent at any time by unsubscribing from our emails (but this won’t affect any of our other services to you.)

Will we share your personal data with anyone else?

We may need to pass your details onto third parties who are either contracted to, or part of the White Deer Legal group of companies. Any third parties who we do pass your details on to are obliged to store your details securely and only process them if responding to our instructions. When the time comes that they no longer require your personal data, they will dispose of this accordingly and in line with our company policy. If we wish to pass your personal data to a third party, we will only do so with your explicit consent, unless we are legally obliged to do so otherwise.  

In some cases, our suppliers may store your personal data outside the EU (to keep safe backups in different locations). When this is done, we will use Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the EU to ensure that your data continues to be protected under the UK data protection law.

How will we use the personal data we collect about you?

Processing data constitutes as collecting, storing and using. We will process this data in accordance with the UK GDPR. We will do our utmost to keep your information accurate and up to date and not keep it longer than is necessary. White Deer Legal may issue occasional reminders to all customers to keep their contact details up to date and will update them accordingly.

Please be advised that there is information that we are required to keep in accordance with the law, such as information needed for tax and audit purposes. Personal data may be held for longer than these periods, however this will depend on the individual needs of the company.

Under what circumstances will we contact you?

We will only ever contact you when necessary, or when you have requested that we do so. We do not mean at any point to be intrusive or ask for unnecessary information. We will do our best to ensure that the information we hold is secure to minimise the risk of unauthorised access or disclosure.

Can you find out about the personal data that we hold about you?

If you want to see what personal data we hold on you and how it is processed, you may contact us to request this. This is known as a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) and you must request this in writing (either by post or email), providing the necessary identification before any information is released. If White Deer Legal do store any of your personal data, you may request the following:

  • To receive a copy of any of your personal information that we store (note: we are required by law and the Society of Will Writers’ Code of Practice not to share personal information with beneficiaries);
  • To request that we erase your personal data (we may have rights to reject these requests where necessary for legal purposes);
  • To correct, amend or update your personal data;
  • To ask us to stop processing your personal data, or to remove your details from our mailing lists
  • To have your personal data transferred to another will-writing provider
What forms of ID will you need to provide in order to access this?

White Deer Legal will accept the following forms of ID when information on your personal data is requested: Passport; Photo Driving Licence; Utility Bill (from the last three months).

Contact details of the GDPR Owner

If you wish to submit an information request, or have any questions regarding this privacy statement, you may do so in writing using the following information.

Address: 33A High Street, Heathfield, East Sussex, TN21 8HU

Email: info@whitedeerlegal.co.uk

Your right to complain to the regulator

We hope that we can resolve your issue to your satisfaction. If not, you also have a right to lodge a complaint with the regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (the ICO). Please refer to the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/concerns or by calling them on 0303 123 1113.

Use of cookies on this site

To make our website simpler, small data files are placed on your computer. These are known as cookies. Most big websites do this too.

They improve things by:

Use of cookies on this site

To make our website simpler, small data files are placed on your computer. These are known as cookies. Most big websites do this too.

They improve things by:

  • remembering settings, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you visit a new page;
  • remembering information you’ve given (e.g. your postcode) so you don’t need to keep entering it;
  • measuring how you use the website so we can make sure it meets your needs.

Our cookies aren’t used to identify you personally. They’re just here to make the site work better for you. Indeed, you can manage and/or delete these small files as you wish.

You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies for all sites.

To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit AboutCookies.org.

i) First Party Cookies

These are cookies that are set by this website directly.

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how people use this site. We do this to make sure it’s meeting its users’ needs and to understand how we could do it better. Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click on. We do not use cookies to collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are.

There are also cookies that store basic data on your interactions with WordPress, the CMS running this website.

ii) Third Party Cookies

These are cookies set on your machine by external websites whose services are used on this site. Cookies of this type are the sharing buttons across the site allow visitors to share content onto social networks. Cookies are currently set by Twitter, Facebook and Google+. If you want to prevent sites setting third party cookies, instructions to do so are here.

iii) Log Files

Log files allow us to record visitors’ use of the site. These logs are automatically generated from all our visitors, which we use to make improvements to the layout of the site and to the information in it, based on the way that visitors move around it. Log files do not contain any personal information about you.

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to our partners, as well as other external sites. You should note, that if you click through to any of these external sites, we do not have control over that site (unless it is a website which forms part of the White Deer Legal Group of companies.) We cannot be responsible for the protection of any information that you provide to these other websites as they are not governed by this privacy statement. You should always exercise caution and look at the privacy statement of whichever website it is that you are visiting.  

Policy Changes

White Deer Legal reserves the right to change this privacy policy and will post any revisions on this web site. Your continued use of this web site will be subject to the then-current privacy policy.