Privacy Notice

At Positive Alpha, we understand that we have a responsibility to protect and respect your privacy and look after your personal data.

This Privacy Notice explains what personal data we collect, how we use your personal data, reasons we may need to disclose your personal data to others and how we store your personal data securely.

We must advise that this policy is subject to change, so please check our website on a regular basis for any further changes. By using our website, you agree to this Privacy Notice.

Data Protection law will change on 25 May 2018

This notice sets out your rights under the new laws.

Who we are

Positive Alpha is a provider of PR and communication services, based in London. Registered office 65 Rotherfield Street, London N1 3BZ. Company number 5956005.

We are the data controller of the data which we collect from you, eg. we control the ways your personal data are collected and for which purposes they are used. We are also a data processor for using a database of journalists within the supplier’s platform as well as for using personal data provided by our clients.

How the law protects you

Data protection laws state that Positive Alpha is only able to use personal data if it has valid reasons to do so. We process your personal data so that we can fulfil a contract with you or in the event you consent to such processing.

How we collect personal data from you

We receive information about you (or your business) from you when you contact us by phone, email, live-chat or otherwise in respect of any of our services.

If you provide us with personal data about a third party, you warrant that you have obtained the express consent from the third party for the disclosure and use of their personal data.

Type of data we collect from you

The personal data that we may collect from you include your name, address, email address, phone numbers, picture, bank details for payment of provided services, VAT number. We also retain records of your queries and correspondence, in the event you contact us. By providing sensitive data, you explicitly agree that we may collect it and use it to provide services to you.

How we use your personal data

We use information about you in the following ways:

Retention periods

We will keep your personal data for the duration of the period you are a customer of or a supplier for Positive Alpha. On termination of contract, we may keep your data for up to 7 years after you have cancelled your services with us. We may not be able to delete your data before this time due to our legal and/or accountancy obligations. We assure you that your personal data shall only be used for these purposes stated herein. When there is no business, legal or customer need for us to keep your personal data we will delete it.

Sharing your personal data

We share some of your personal data with third parties within the European Economic Area (‘EEA’):

Media:

Within the framework of our contractual agreements and based on the nature of our activities (PR and communication), we only provide our agreed target media contacts with our client’s name, occasionally email address, telephone number, mini biography and picture. No other media outlets receive your personal data.

Clients of Positive Alpha:

a/ Based on the nature of our activities (PR and communication), we sometimes provide our clients with our target media contacts (reporter’s name, email address, telephone number, mini biography and picture) when there is a legitimate interest to do so. No other third party receives your personal data.

b/ Through the invoices suppliers send us for services provided to us on behalf of our clients we may share these invoice data with our clients and our external accountants, for billing and / or accountancy purposes. Where appropriate, depending upon contracts with our clients, we rebill them the services you provided to us and need proof of invoicing and of relevant payment.

Your bank payment information:

In order to process payments to our suppliers and to prevent and detect fraud, we process bank data information through our payment card and fraud management services providers.

We do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties of any kind.

We may share your personal data if we are under a duty to disclose data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Positive Alpha, our clients, or others. This includes but is not limited to exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and dispute policies. However, wherever possible we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

We currently do not share or transfer data outside the European Economic Area. Should this change we will ensure that they are protected in the same way as they are within the EEA, i.e. that the non-EEA country applies as protective laws as within the EEA or is part of the Private Shield. The Private Shield Framework sets out the standards for data to be sent between the EU, Switzerland and the US, to ensure same data protection standards across these countries.

Your rights

You have the right to see copies of all personal data we hold about you, to object to our use of your personal data, or ask us to delete, remove or stop using it if there is no need for us to keep it. This is known as your right to be forgotten. There are legal and accountancy reasons why we will need to keep your data, but please do inform us if you think we are retaining or using your personal data incorrectly.

Preventing the use or processing of your personal data may delay or prevent us from fulfilling our contractual obligations to you. It may also mean that we shall be unable to provide our services, or the cancellation of your service.

Accessing and updating your data

You must maintain the accuracy of your information and ensure all your details, including but not limited to, name, address, title, phone number, e-mail address and payment details are kept up to date at all times.

You have the right to access the information we hold about you. Please email your request to v.sant@positive-alpha.com to obtain this information.

Where we store and how we protect your personal data

We protect your data against unauthorized access, illegal use, corruption, destruction or accidental loss. All information you provide to us is stored on a secured system. We use encryption and password protection technical measures to protect your data and the systems they are held in. Our system is protected by appropriate antivirus software, which helps combat threats from viruses and malware.

Contact us

Please email any questions or comments you have about privacy to Véronique Sant at
v.sant@positive-alpha.com

Complaints

You have the right to make a complaint about how we process your personal data to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
UK
Tel: 00 44 (0)303 123 1113