Introduction

Welcome to Language Matters‘ privacy notice.

Language Matters respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Please use the glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy notice.

1. Important information and who we are

Purpose of this privacy notice

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how Language Matters collects and processes your personal data.

This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

Controller

Language Matters (UK) Ltd is the controller and responsible for your personal data (referred to as “Language Matters”, „we“, „us“ or „our“ in this privacy notice).

We have appointed a data protection officer (DPO) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact the DPO using the details set out below.

Contact details

Our full details are:
Full name of legal entity: Language Matters (UK) Ltd
Name or title of DPO: Debbie Sasson
Email address: debbie.sasson@languagemattersuk.com
Postal address: Langdale House, Back Lane, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, HP8 4PB
Telephone number: + 44 (0) 1494 876109

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.

Changes to the privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes

This version was last updated on 21 May 2018.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Third-party links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

2. The data we collect about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

  • Identity Data includes first name, last name, title, gender, nationality, native language.
  • Contact Data includes email address, telephone numbers, Skype address, office and, if training is delivered at your home, your home address.
  • Financial Data includes bank account details for language and cultural trainers, translators and interpreters.
  • Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of language training and other language services you have purchased from us.
  • Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your last login date and time when using the client login portal, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
  • Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
  • Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services.
  • Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with services). In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

3. How is your personal data collected?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

  • Direct interactions. You may give us your identity, contact details, native and target language, details of prior language learning and language learning objectives by completing forms or by corresponding with us by phone, email, video-conference or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
    • apply for a language or cultural awareness course;
    • complete a training needs analysis and/or language assessment;
    • request course information or marketing material to be sent to you;
    • attend language or cultural training;
    • evaluate our courses and give us feedback.
  • Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit o¬ther websites employing our cookies. Please see our cookie policy www.languagemattersuk.com/dislaimer for further details.
  • Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:Technical Data from the following parties:
    • analytics providers such as Google based outside the EU;
    • search information providers such as Google based outside the EU.
  • Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services such as the European Bookshop, Amazon and Transferwise based inside the EU.
4. How we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Purpose/Activity Type of data Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
To register you as a new client
  • Identity
  • Contact details
Performance of a contract with you
To deliver your course, order your course material

Manage payments, fees and charges

  • Native language(s)
  • Target language(s)
  • Language learning history
  • Training objectives
  • Marketing and Communications
  • Home and/or office address
Performance of a contract with you
To provide you with translation, interpreting or transcription services
  • Source language(s)
  • Target language(s)
  • Purpose of translation, interpreting, transcription assignment
  • Confidential information your company
Performance of a contract with you
To manage our relationship with you which will include:
  • Identification of your preferences, language needs and business objectives
  • Your contact history with us
  • Asking you to complete an evaluation or leave a review
  • Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy
  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Profile
  • Marketing and Communications
  • Performance of a contract with you
  • To deliver an excellent service to you
  • Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
  • Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated)
To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data)
  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Technical
  • Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud)
  • Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To deliver relevant website content to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the our website
  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Profile
  • Usage
  • Marketing and Communications
  • Technical
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how clients use our services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences
  • Technical
  • Usage
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our products and services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you
  • Identity
  • Contact
  • Technical
  • Usage
  • Profile
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business)

Marketing

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you.

Third-party marketing

We do not share your personal data with any third party companies for marketing purposes. We want to earn and maintain your trust and believe that this is essential to do so.

However, we do share your contact information (name, address, phone number) with companies from whom we purchase course material on your behalf.

Opting out

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any by contacting us at any time on info@languagemattersuk.com.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a training course or translation, interpreting or transcription service provided to you.

Cookies

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see www.languagmattersuk.com/disclaimer

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

5. Disclosures of your personal data

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above.

Unser Team

  • Language trainers in the United Kingdom, inside the EU and outside the EU.
  • Cultural trainers in the United Kingdom, inside the EU and outside the EU.
  • Translators and interpreters in the United Kingdom, inside the EU and outside the EU.

External Third Parties

  • Service providers based in the United Kingdom who provide IT and system administration services.
  • Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, accountants and insurers based in the UK who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
  • HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities based in the United Kingdom who may require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
  • Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

6. International transfers

We share your personal data with our trainers and linguists both inside and outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Our external third parties are not based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data will not involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.

7. Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

8. Data retention

How long will you use my personal data for?

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.

We retain your personal data for fifteen years, as many clients come back to us for further language training and/or other language-related services and it is helpful to refer back to their language learning history.

You can ask us to delete your personal data by contacting us at any time on info@languagemattersuk.com.

9. Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Please contact us oninfo@languagemattersuk.com if you would like to:

  • Request access to your personal data.
  • Request correction of your personal data.
  • Request erasure of your personal data.
  • Object to processing of your personal data.
  • Request restriction of processing your personal data.
  • Request transfer of your personal data.
  • Withdraw consent

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

10. Glossary

LAWFUL BASIS

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us oninfo@languagemattersuk.com.

Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a „data subject access request“). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.