Our privacy statement
General
The First Word Privacy Statement
We only collect and keep personal data that’s essential to our work as a training and copywriting business. We only process and keep that data for legal reasons. In most cases, this will be to meet the terms of our contract.
We only share personal data with the people and organisations who need it to meet the terms of our contract. We will not share it with any other third parties without getting your permission.
Occasionally, we may need to collect and keep personal data for our marketing. If we do, we will ask for your permission. We will only use it for this reason. If we need to use it for any other reason, we will ask for your permission.
We delete or destroy personal data as soon as we no longer need it.
Your rights
You have the right to know what personal data we have about you, and to see it. You have the right to ask us to correct any of your data. You also have the right to ask us to delete it if there’s no good reason for us to keep it.
When we keep your personal data for legal reasons, you have the right to ask us to restrict how we process it.
You have the right to ask us for personal data we keep electronically in other formats so you can read it more easily.
You have the right to tell us you do not want us to process any personal data in certain ways. This can be for things like quality assurance, marketing or promotion or other reasons outside of our contract.
You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you’re unhappy with the way we’re processing your data.
If you are our client
We collect and keep your contact details so we can quote when you ask us to and do any work we have a contract with you to do.
When we finish a contract, we keep your contact details so we can:
quote for or do any more work you ask for
ask you for references to help us get contracts with other clients
send you details of our other services or products you may be interested in.
We delete or destroy your contact details when you ask us to.
We keep any of your contact details that relate to financial transactions for the minimum period allowed by HMRC for keeping financial accounts.
If you join our training courses, events or coaching sessions
We collect and keep your name, job role and contact details when you come on our courses and events so we can:
let our clients know who has taken part
send certificates of attendance if our client asks for them
send you details of our other services, events or products you may be interested in – but only if we have your permission.
We delete or destroy your details when you ask us to.
We might ask you to fill in a feedback form. You can give your name and role if you want, but you don’t have to. We collect this data so we can:
follow up with you about a specific concern or comment we feel we need to
adapt and improve our services
use your comments to promote our work – but only if we have your permission.
We may ask you to rate your knowledge, skills and confidence before and after training or an event. This is so we can see any differences. We then merge your data with data from other people taking part in the same training or event – or series of events. The data is always anonymous.
At the start of every project, we agree what is confidential about the attitude, performance and behaviour of people taking part in our training or events. Our team will always follow what we agree in general. But they have a duty to tell the client or The First Word anything that fits into any of these categories:
• Where the law says we must act on what we know
• Where someone’s behaviour does not follow their organisation’s policies
• Where The First Word team has to end or change the training or event because of someone’s behaviour or performance
• Where someone has chosen to leave the training or event early or stopped engaging with the learning process
Sometimes our team takes notes at our training and events. Where these notes include your or others’ contact details, we’ll delete or destroy them if you ask us to.
We collect and keep your name and contact details when you take part in our coaching programmes. This is so we can:
• contact you to arrange coaching sessions
• tell the client who has come for coaching
• send you details of our other services or products you may be interested in – but only if we have your permission.
We delete or destroy your contact details when you ask us to.
At the end of each coaching session, we ask you to evaluate your progress, including:
• how far you’ve come towards your coaching goals
• how our coach has supported and challenged you
• how committed you are to carrying on with the coaching programme.
We collect this information mainly so our coach can measure and show your progress. But they also share it with The First Word so we can merge it with data from other people on the same coaching programme. The data is anonymous.
Sometimes our coach takes notes during the sessions. Where these notes include your or others’ personal details, we’ll delete or destroy them if you ask us to.
Sometimes our coaches use online surveys to gather information about someone we’re coaching. For example, surveys where someone’s colleagues and managers give feedback on them.
They use the data to give you structured feedback and recommend ways you can develop. They give you a copy of their report and share anonymous copies with The First Word.
We then merge the data with data from other people on the coaching programme so we can assess the coaching.
If you’re one of our suppliers
Broadly, we define suppliers as associate consultants, writers, designers, lawyers, actors or facilitators who:
are working with us at the moment and have signed a contract
have worked with us in the past
have connections with us through some form of collaboration, but who have not worked for us.
When you are one of our suppliers, we collect and keep your contact details so we can:
see if you’re interested in, and suitable and available for, a project or being included in a tender for work
tell you about any developments at The First Word.
We will delete or destroy your contact details when you ask us to, unless we legally have to keep the data.
We keep any of your contact details that relate to financial transactions for the minimum period allowed by HMRC for keeping financial accounts.
We may hold sensitive personal data about you so we can include it in a tender for work. For example:
your employment and career history, and academic and professional achievements (on your CV)
feedback from clients and people we have trained or coached
references from your previous employers and clients.
When you sign our contract you give us permission to do this.
The contract makes a clear statement that you have the permission of your other clients and previous employers to use feedback and references in this way.
You can cancel your permission for us to use this data like this at any time.
We may hold sensitive personal data about you so we can meet the conditions of a contract. This can include:
criminal record check certificates and other forms of security clearance
professional indemnity and public liability insurance certificates.
When you sign our contract, you give us permission to collect and keep this data. You can cancel this permission at any time.
We may hold sensitive personal data about you for quality assurance – so we can decide whether you’re right for a project. This may include:
your employment and career history, and academic and professional achievements (on your CV)
feedback from clients and people we have trained or coached.
When you sign our contract you give us permission to collect and keep this data. You can cancel this permission at any time.
If you use our readability test
We don’t see or store anything when you use our readability test – it doesn’t collect any data and there are no cookies. The test works everything out in the browser, and nothing is saved or transferred anywhere.
Getting in touch with The First Word
If you’d like to get in touch with us about the information we hold about you, you can get in touch by writing to:
Neil Martin
51 De Frene Road
London
SE26 4AF
Or email hello@thefirstword.co.uk
© The First Word Privacy Statement
The First Word is the trading name of The First Word Agency Limited
Registered number 07512193