A privacy policy is a statement or a legal document (in privacy law) that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client’s data. It fulfills a legal requirement to protect a customer or client’s privacy.

Harrap Computer Systems Privacy Policy

Introduction

Harrap ICT t/a Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. (“We”, “Us”, “the Company”) needs to gather and use certain information about individuals.

These can include customers, suppliers, business contacts, employees and other people the organisation has a relationship with or may need to contact.

We pay particular attention to the data on staff and students that is supplied to Us by schools, who are the data controllers of this data.

This policy describes how this data must be collected, handled and stored to meet the Company’s data protection standards — and to comply with the law.

Why this policy exists

This data protection policy ensures Harrap Computer Systems Ltd.:

  • Complies with data protection law and follows good practice
  • Protects the rights of staff, customers and partners
  • Is open about how it stores and processes individuals’ data
  • Protects itself from the risks of a data breach

Data protection law

The Data Protection Act 1998 describes how organisations — including Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. — must collect, handle and store personal information.

These rules apply regardless of whether data is stored electronically, on paper or on other materials.

To comply with the law, personal information must be collected and used fairly, stored safely and not disclosed unlawfully.

The Data Protection Act is underpinned by eight important principles. These say that personal data must:

  1. Be processed fairly and lawfully
  2. Be obtained only for specified, lawful purposes
  3. Be adequate, relevant and not excessive
  4. Be accurate and kept up to date
  5. Not be held for any longer than necessary
  6. Processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects
  7. Be protected in appropriate ways
  8. Not be transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA), unless that country or territory also ensures an adequate level of protection

The DPA 1998 will be superseded by the General data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as of May 25th 2018. We feel that the terms of this policy will also apply under these new regulations and will ensure that Harrap computer Systems Ltd. is GDPR compliant.

Policy scope

This policy applies to all employees of  Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. It applies to all data that the Company holds relating to identifiable individuals, even if that information technically falls outside of the Data Protection Act 1998. This can include:

  • Names of individuals
  • Postal addresses
  • Email addresses
  • Telephone numbers
  • Plus any other information relating to individuals

Data protection risks

This policy helps to protect Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. from data security risks, including:

  • Breaches of confidentiality. For instance, information being given out inappropriately.
  • Failing to offer choice. For instance, all individuals or data controllers (schools) should be free to choose how the Company uses data relating to them or their organisation.
  • Reputational damage. For instance, the Company could suffer if stakeholders lost faith in the Company’s ability to look after their data.

Responsibilities

Everyone who works for or with Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. has some responsibility for ensuring data is collected, stored and handled appropriately.

Each team that handles personal data must ensure that it is handled and processed in line with this policy and data protection principles.

General staff guidelines

  • The only people able to access data covered by this policy should be those who need it for their work.
  • Data should not be shared informally. When access to confidential information is required, employees can request it from their line managers.
  • Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. will provide training to all employees to help them understand their responsibilities when handling data.
  • Employees should keep all data secure, by taking sensible precautions and following the guidelines below.
  • In particular, access to sensitive data, or data being held on behalf of a data controller, e.g. a school, should be protected by strong passwords, and they should never be shared with unauthorised people.
  • Personal data, or data being held on behalf of a data controller, e.g. a school, should not be disclosed to unauthorised people, either within the Company or externally.
  • Data for which Harrap computer Systems is the data controller should be regularly reviewed and updated if it is found to be out of date. If no longer required, it should be deleted and disposed of.  Data being held on behalf of a data controller, e.g. a school, should be reviewed and updated by them.
  • Employees should request help from their line manager if they are unsure about any aspect of data protection.

Data storage

These rules describe how and where data should be safely stored. Questions about storing data safely can be directed to the IT manager or data controller.

When data is stored on paper, it should be kept in a secure place where unauthorised people cannot see it.

These guidelines also apply to data that is usually stored electronically but has been printed out for some reason:

  • When not required, the paper or files should be kept in a locked drawer or filing cabinet.
  • Employees should make sure paper and printouts are not left where unauthorised people could see them, like on a printer.
  • Data printouts should be shredded and disposed of securely when no longer required.

When data is stored electronically, it must be protected from unauthorised access, accidental deletion and malicious hacking attempts:

  • Data should be protected by strong passwords that are never shared between employees.
  • If data is stored on removable media (like a CD or DVD), these should be kept locked away securely when not being used.
  • Data should only be stored on designated drives and servers, and should only be uploaded to an approved cloud computing services.
  • Servers containing personal data should be sited in a secure location, away from general office space.
  • Data should be backed up frequently. Those backups should be tested regularly, in line with the company’s standard backup procedures.
  • Data should never be saved directly to laptops or other mobile devices like tablets or smartphones.
  • All servers and computers containing data should be protected by approved security software and a firewall.

Data use

Personal data is of no value to Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. unless the business can make use of it. However, it is when personal data is accessed and used that it can be at the greatest risk of loss, corruption or theft:

  • When working with personal data, employees should ensure the screens of their computers are always locked when left unattended.
  • Personal data should not be shared informally. In particular, it should never be sent by email, as this form of communication is not secure.
  • Data must be encrypted before being transferred electronically. The IT manager can explain how to send data to authorised external contacts.
  • Personal data should never be transferred outside of the European Economic Area.
  • Employees should not save copies of personal data to their own computers. Always access and update the central copy of any data.

Data accuracy

The law requires Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. to take reasonable steps to ensure data, for which it is the data controller, is kept accurate and up to date.

The more important it is that the personal data is accurate, the greater the effort Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. should put into ensuring its accuracy.

It is the responsibility of all employees who work with data to take reasonable steps to ensure it is kept as accurate and up to date as possible.

  • Data will be held in as few places as necessary. Staff should not create any unnecessary additional data sets.
  • Staff should take every opportunity to ensure data is updated. For instance, by confirming a customer’s details when they call.
  • Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. will make it easy for data subjects to update the information Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. holds about them.
  • Data should be updated as inaccuracies are discovered. For instance, if a customer can no longer be reached on their stored telephone number, it should be removed from the database.
  • It is the marketing manager’s responsibility to ensure marketing databases are checked against industry suppression files every six months.

Subject access requests

All individuals, or organisations, who are the subject of personal data held by Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. are entitled to:

  • Ask what information the company holds about them and why.
  • Ask how to gain access to it.
  • Be informed how to keep it up to date.
  • Request erasure or restrictions of data.
  • Be informed how the company is meeting its data protection obligations.

If an individual contacts the company requesting this information, this is called a subject access request.

Subject access requests from individuals should be made by email, addressed to the data controller at support@harrap.it. The data controller can supply a standard request form, although individuals do not have to use this.

The data controller will aim to provide the relevant data within one month.

The data controller will always verify the identity of anyone making a subject access request before handing over any information.

Disclosing data for other reasons

In certain circumstances, the Data Protection Act allows personal data to be disclosed to law enforcement agencies without the consent of the data subject.

Under these circumstances, Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. will disclose requested data. However, the data controller will ensure the request is legitimate, seeking assistance from the board and from the company’s legal advisers where necessary.

Providing information

Harrap Computer Systems Ltd. aims to ensure that individuals are aware that their data is being processed, and that they understand:

  • How the data is being used
  • How to exercise their rights

To these ends, the company has a privacy statement, setting out how data relating to individuals is used by the company. This is available on request.

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of information in the form of a very small text file that is placed on an internet user’s hard drive. It is generated by a web page server (the computer that operates a web site). The information the cookie contains is set by the server and it can be used by that server whenever the user visits the site. A cookie can be thought of as an internet user’s identification card, which tell a website when the user has returned.

We may store information about you using cookies (files which are sent by us to your computer or other access device) which we can access when you visit our site in future. We do this to enable you to move you around the website and use features such as accessing secure areas of the websites.  Without these cookies, our website won’t work as well as it should.

If you want to delete any cookies that are already on your computer, please refer to the instructions for your file management software to locate the file or directory that stores cookies.

Information on deleting or controlling cookies is available at www.aboutcookies.org. Please note that by deleting our cookies or disabling future cookies you may not be able to access certain areas or features of our site.

This website does use cookies but they are not used to identify users of this site.

Google Analytics is used on this website. This is a popular web analytics service which uses cookies to help us to count the number of people that visit www.harrap.it and to analyse what they look at.

The information generated by the cookies about your use of our website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of our website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google undertakes not to associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

Our details

Harrap Computer Systems Ltd is a UK Private limited Company with company number 6803302.  We are registered as a data controller with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office and our data protection registration number is ZA277443.

This policy was last updated: February 2018