Your privacy is important to us, and we take care to protect the privacy of customers as well as users of our website and, if we ask you to provide certain information, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this Privacy Notice. Set out below is an explanation of how we process information about our customers and visitors to the site, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR.
Your Rights
Under the Data Protection Legislation, data subjects have the following rights with regards their personal information:
- the right to be informed about the collection and the use of their personal data
- the right to access personal data and supplementary information
- the right to have inaccurate personal data rectified, or completed if it is incomplete
- the right to erasure (to be forgotten) in certain circumstances
- the right to restrict processing in certain circumstances
- the right to data portability, which allows the data subject to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services
- the right to object to processing in certain circumstances
- rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling
- the right to withdraw consent at any time (where relevant)
- the right to complain to the Information Commissioner
If you wish to exercise your rights under the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR you should contact the Compliance Team, Equita Limited, 42/44 Henry Street, Northampton, NN1 4BZ or click here to complete the online form.
Please note that all Enforcement Agents are bound by the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 and other National Laws and Government Standards which may prevent the above rights being fulfilled e.g., a request to restrict the processing of your data does not stop the recovery of your debt, and erasure of your data does not negate the existence of your debt.
Collection of Personal information
The information which we collect and store during normal use of this site is used to monitor and analyse how parts of the site are used. Such use does not result in any personally identifiable data being collected or stored. ‘Personal information’ means information from which someone else would be able to identify you as an individual.
You have the option on certain pages of entering your details in any fields requested, such as your name, email address, postal address, telephone or mobile number, or reference number, to enable Equita to fulfil the service it has been instructed to carry out, and in all cases, we will only request information necessary for this task.
Equita will be provided with information on data subjects (those that have debts owing) by our clients for the purpose of recovering debt. Equita has access to additional data through using credit reference agencies and third-party intermediaries to ensure that the information we have is up to date and accurate.
Equita captures some special category data when customers choose to disclose it to us directly or via our online forms (e.g., in making us aware of a vulnerability we need to take into consideration). As a business, we have specific policies and procedures to ensure that special category data is handled appropriately and securely, and only by qualified staff.
Call Recording: To help improve efficiency and effectiveness of some of the services provided to you by telephone, we may keep a record of calls that you make to us.
Body Worn Cameras: To ensure the safety and security of our staff and to ensure that we operate within required standards, all Enforcement Agents are required to wear Body Worn Cameras that record their visit to an address and these recordings will contain personal data.
The Legal Basis for Processing Your Information
Data Protection regulations says that we are allowed to use personal information only if we have a proper reason to do so. This includes sharing it outside Equita. The law says we must have one or more of these reasons:
- We have a contractual obligation
- We have a legal obligation
- We have a vital interest
- We need it to perform a public task
- We have a legitimate interest
Who we share your information with
We may disclose your personal data to our instructing client, agents who we use to collect what you owe and third-party organisations to fulfil a contract, where we have a legal obligation, or where we have a legitimate interest to do so. We may also use your personal data where we are taking part in research or statistical projects, and this may involve sharing this information with third parties who may be carrying out such activities either directly on our behalf or more widely across the entire Enforcement sector.
Equita may also share your personal information with the police and other government agencies for the purposes of crime prevention or detection.
If we disclose your information, we ask the organisation to demonstrate that the data will assist in the prevention or detection of crime, or that Equita is legally obliged to disclose it, and written authority is required to ensure we comply with data protection legislation.
We confirm we will not send your information outside the EEA.
How long we keep your personal information
Equita has a Data Retention Policy which mandates how long records, including personal data, must be retained. Retention periods are determined by legislation and business requirements. In most cases we will hold your data for up to 6 years after last contact, with the exception of telephone call recordings which is 12 months and Body Worn Camera videos 3 months, unless we have a legitimate business need or regulatory obligation which requires that we hold your data for a different time period.
Protecting your information
We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. To prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect.
How to get a copy of your personal information
You can obtain a copy of your personal information we hold by writing to the Compliance Team, Equita Limited, 42/44 Henry Street, Northampton, NN1 4BZ or click here to complete the online form detailing the scope of request. This constitutes a Subject Access Request (SAR). There is no charge for obtaining a SAR unless your request is excessive or manifestly unfounded, but we will require proof of your identity before releasing information.
Letting us know if your personal information is incorrect
You have the right to question any information we have about you that you think is wrong or incomplete. If you want to do this, please contact us and we will take reasonable steps to check its accuracy and correct it.
What if you want us to stop using your personal information?
You have the right to object to our use of your personal information, or to ask us to delete, remove, or stop using your personal information if there is no need for us to keep it. This is known as the ‘right to object’ and ‘right to erasure’, or the ‘right to be forgotten’. You can also withdraw any consent you have given. Please note that there are some exemptions within the data protection legislation which will prevent you from exercising these rights and the use of your personal data will continue e.g. where your personal data is being used for research or statistical purposes.
If you want to object to how we use your data or ask us to delete or restrict how we use it, please contact us so we may discuss this with you.
How to complain
If you have any concerns or complaints regarding the processing of your personal data, please contact the Risk & Compliance Team, Equita Limited, 42/44 Henry Street, Northampton, NN1 4BZ or click here to complete the online form and your complaint will be investigated.
If you have any concerns or complaints regarding the processing of your personal data, or our compliance with the UK GDPR and DPA 2018, you should contact our Data Protection Officer at [email protected].
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Supervisory Authority: – Information Commissioners Office (ICO)
Their contact details in the UK are: –
- Website: www.ico.org.uk
- Telephone: 0303 123 1113
- Postal address: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
Changes to this Privacy Notice
We may occasionally update this notice by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure you are happy with any changes. Your continued use of the site will constitute an acceptance to these revisions.
