MCW Privacy Policy

The Policies and practice of data handling and storage at MCW Architects (hereafter referred to as MCW) is based upon, and consistent with, the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Commitment to the Protection of Personal Information
MCW Architects is strongly committed to protecting your privacy when you use our services or interact with us.
This policy sets out the basis on which MCW may collect, store and process any personal data on you as a result of your business with us or the use of our website.

MCW needs to collect and use certain types of information about people with whom it deals in order to operate effectively. These include clients, consultants, staff, suppliers and others with whom it communicates.

This personal information is dealt with properly and securely regardless of what method is used for its collection, recording or use – whether this is paper, a computer system or any other material. There are safeguards to ensure that the processing of such information is carried out in a proper fashion and these are contained in the Act.

This policy does not seek to convey the whole legislation to its readers, rather to acquaint them with the main provisions and to demonstrate that MCW has a commitment to those provisions.

MCW regards the lawful and correct treatment of personal information as very important to the successful and efficient performance of its functions and to maintaining confidence between those with whom we deal and ourselves. We aim to ensure that MCW treats personal information lawfully and fairly.

Our Data Protection Standards
MCW will, through appropriate management and adherence to agreed procedures:

Observe fully the conditions relating to the fair collection and use of personal information.
Meet its legal obligations to specify the purposes for which the information is used.
Collect and process appropriate information, but only that which is necessary to its operational needs, or meets its legal requirements.
Ensure the quality of information used.
Apply strict checks to determine the length of time information is held and to ensure that it will be disposed of when no longer required with due regard for its sensitivity.
Ensure that the rights of people about whom information is held can be exercised. These include the right to be informed that processing is being undertaken through a Privacy Notice on our website, the right to access one’s personal information, the right to prevent processing in certain circumstances and the right to correct, rectify, block or erase information which is regarded as wrong through a subject access request.
Take appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard personal information.
Ensure that personal information is not transferred abroad without suitable safeguards.

What personal information we collect and why we collect it
We collect personal information such as your name, email address, telephone number and your organisation's name and location.

We collect information about you because:

you have provided it to us – for example, if you contact us to ask us questions;
we need it to provide a product or service that you have requested – for example, if we work on a project with you;
we would like to improve our services – for example, through the collection and analysis of statistical and research data and use of cookies;
you apply for a job with us;
you work for us; or
for purposes directly related to the above.

How we collect information
We will collect information in two principle ways:

Information you send to us; and
Information we automatically collect about you when you visit our website by the use of cookies as explained in detail below.

How We Use Information
We use information held about you in the following ways:

To carry out our contractual obligations for the design and delivery of projects
To provide you with information about other services we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about;
In respect of information provided by you to assess your eligibility for a job vacancy
To carry out our contractual obligations as an employer
To ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer and as part of our efforts to keep our website safe and secure. More details are outlined in our Cookie Policy.

Disclosure of information
We do not share personal information with other companies, organisations and individuals unless one of the following circumstances applies:

with your consent – we will share your personal information when we have your consent to do so; or
for legal reasons - we may disclose your personal information to third parties in the event that we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of MCW architects or our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
to fulfil a contract that we have with you

Accessing your information
Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998, you are entitled to ask MCW for a copy of all the personal information which we hold about you for the purposes of providing services to you. The information, which you are entitled to receive from us is, why we hold the information, to whom the data is disclosed, and the source of the data. This entitlement is known as the “Right of Access to Personal Data”. MCW have a process in place to deal with Subject Access requests in order to respond in a timely and adequate manner.

You can request us to provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you by sending us an email to studio@mcwachitects.com. If particular circumstances apply, we are permitted by the Privacy Act to deny your request for access or limit the access we provide. We will let you know why your request is denied or limited.

Protecting your information
We are committed to keeping secure the personal information you provide to us. We take all reasonable precautions to protect the personal information we hold about you from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Our web site may contain links to third party web sites. Whilst such links are provided for your convenience, you should be aware that the information handling practices of the linked web sites might not be the same as ours.

Changes to our Privacy Policy
We may, from time to time, review and update this Privacy Policy. All information held by us will be governed by the most recently updated policy.

Who to contact
If you have any questions or concerns in relation to our Privacy Policy, please contact us by sending an email to studio@mcwachitects.com