The EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) comes into force across the European Union on 25th May 2018 and brings with it the most significant changes to data protection law in two decades. Based on privacy by design and taking a risk-based approach, the GDPR has been designed to meet the requirements of the digital age.
Vizual Management Solutions Limited (‘we’ or ‘us’ or ‘our’) are committed to ensuring the security and protection of the personal information that we process, and to provide a compliant and consistent approach to data protection to meet the demands of the GDPR and the UK’s Data Protection Bill.
As part of our continuous focus on information security and data privacy we have been getting ready for GDPR through a managed programme of activities in the following areas:
We have revised our Privacy Notice(s) to comply with the GDPR, ensuring that all individuals whose personal information we process have been informed of why we need it, how it is used, what their rights are, who the information is disclosed to and what safeguarding measures are in place to protect their information.
Reviewing and improving our information security framework, ensuring that our incident response process remains effective and that confidentiality, integrity and availability of personal information is assured through appropriate technical and organisational measures.
Carrying out a company-wide information audit to identify and assess what personal information we hold, where it comes from, how and why it is processed and if and to whom it is disclosed.
We are reviewing all processing activities to identify the legal basis for processing and ensuring that each basis is appropriate for the activity it relates to. Where applicable, we also maintain records of our processing activities, ensuring that our obligations under Article 30 of the GDPR and Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Bill are met.
We are revising our consent mechanisms for obtaining personal data, ensuring that individuals understand what they are providing, why and how we use it and giving clear, defined ways to consent to us processing their information. We have developed stringent processes for recording consent, making sure that we can evidence an affirmative opt-in, along with time and date records; and an easy to see and access way to withdraw consent at any time.
We are revising the wording and processes for direct marketing, including clear opt-in mechanisms for marketing subscriptions; a clear notice and method for opting out and providing unsubscribe features on all subsequent marketing materials.
Where we process personal information that includes special category data (biometric data) we have developed procedures for carrying out impact assessments that comply fully with the GDPR’s Article 35 requirements. We have implemented documentation processes that record each assessment, allow us to rate the risk posed by the processing activity and implement mitigating measures to reduce the risk posed to the data subject(s).
Where we use any third-party to process personal information on our behalf (i.e. Payroll, Recruitment, Hosting etc), we have drafted compliant Processor Agreements and due diligence procedures for ensuring that they (as well as we), meet and understand their/our GDPR obligations. These measures include initial and ongoing reviews of the service provided, the necessity of the processing activity, the technical and organisational measures in place and compliance with the GDPR.
Where we obtain and process any special category information such as biometrics (where used for ID purposes), we do so in compliance with the Article 9 requirements and have protection on all such data.
In addition to the policies and procedures mentioned above that ensure individuals can enforce their data protection rights, we provide easy to access information via request in the office, during induction etc of an individual’s right to access any personal information that Vizual Management Solutions Limited processes about them and to request information about:
| What personal data we hold about them | The purposes of the processing | The categories of personal data concerned |
| The recipients to whom the personal data has/will be disclosed | How long we intend to store the personal data for | If we did not collect the data directly from them, information about the source |
| The right to have incomplete or inaccurate data about them corrected or completed and the process for requesting this | The right to request erasure of personal data (where applicable) or to restrict processing in accordance with data protection laws, as well as to object to any direct marketing from us and to be informed about any automated decision-making that we use | The right to lodge a complaint or seek judicial remedy and who to contact in such instances |
We take the privacy and security of individuals and their personal information very seriously and take every reasonable measure and precaution to protect and secure the personal data that we process. We have robust information security policies and procedures in place to protect personal information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction and have several layers of security measures, including:
We have a designated Data Protection Officer (DPO) and have appointed a data privacy team to develop and implement our roadmap for complying with the new data protection Regulation. The team are responsible for promoting awareness of the GDPR across the organisation, assessing our GDPR readiness, identifying any gap areas and implementing the new policies, procedures and measures. We understand that continuous employee awareness and understanding is vital to the continued compliance of the GDPR and are involving our employees in our preparation plans.
Our data protection arrangements and privacy mindset ensure that our operations are subject to continuous review to maintain alignment with GDPR. As we complete our preparations and as we introduce new products and services, the information provided here will therefore be updated periodically.
If you have any questions about our preparation for the GDPR, please email gdpr@vizualms.co.uk
Last updated: 25-05-18