Who we are and why we are providing this notice
This Privacy Notice applies to personal data processed by Harmers of London Auctions Limited (“Harmers”, “we”, “us”, “our”). This Privacy Notice is intended to ensure that our clients and other persons whose personal data we process (“you”, or “your”) are aware of the categories of your personal data we may collect, how we collect it, what we use it for and who we share it with. Where you are not an individual, please provide a copy of this Privacy Notice to those individuals whose personal data we may process. By “personal data” we mean information about you which could identify you such as your name and contact details. We will be the “data controller” of personal data processed in connection with this Privacy Notice. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. Our registered company number is 11561504 and our registered office address is 60 St. James’s Street, London, SW1A 1LE. Should you have any questions about this Privacy Notice you can contact us at info@harmers.com.
We may provide supplemental privacy notices on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your personal data. Those supplemental notices should be read together with this Privacy Notice. If you also provide us with personal data of others, for instance, if you hold a power of attorney for an individual, please provide those individuals with a copy of this Privacy Notice.
What personal data do we collect about you and what do we use it for?
The types of personal data about you we may process are set out in the table below and in each case we have specified what we use it for and our ‘lawful basis’ for processing it. The law specifies certain ‘lawful bases’ under which we are allowed to use your personal data. Most commonly, we will use your personal data under the following lawful bases:
1. Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you;
2. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation;
3. 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; and/or
4. Where you have consented to us doing so.
Type of personal data
Name and contact details (telephone number, address, email address)
What we use this personal data for
• To provide you with the services you have requested (for example, bidding, appraisals, selling).
• Managing our relationship with you.
• To undertake business development and marketing activities in relation to making suggestions and recommendations to you about products or services that may be of interest to you. This may include direct electronic marketing.
Lawful basis
• Performance of our contract with you.
• Our legitimate interests in maintaining our accounts and records.
• Our legitimate interests in promoting our products and services and growing our business. We only send direct electronic marketing where individuals have consented to this or as otherwise permitted by the law. You can opt-out of receiving such messages at any time by using the opt-out mechanisms available in those messages or by contacting info@harmers.com.
Date of birth
Passport information
Proof of address
To carry out ‘know your client’ and anti-money laundering checks and related actions considered appropriate to meet any legal or regulatory obligations relating to the prevention of fraud, money laundering and tax evasion on an on-going basis.
Compliance with applicable legal obligations and our legitimate interests in complying with law and regulation applicable to us.
Financial details (your bank account details)
To make any payments due to you.
Areas of interest (such as ‘14th century coins’ or ‘Irish stamps’)
Your marketing and communication preferences
Our legitimate interests in promoting our products and services and growing our business. We only send direct electronic marketing where individuals have consented to this or as otherwise permitted by the law. You can opt-out of receiving such messages at any time by using the opt-out mechanisms available in those messages or by contacting info@harmers.com.
Details of your transactions with us (for example, items you have bought or items you have placed a bid on) and records of our communications.
To manage our relationship with you and help us understand the relationship between our clients in order to assist us to develop our service.
Our legitimate interests in growing our business and developing our relationships with our clients.
In addition to the uses above, please note that we may also process your information where we are required by law to do so or if we reasonably believe that it is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with judicial or regulatory proceedings, a court order or other legal process.
Special categories of personal data
There are more limited bases for processing special category personal data. This is personal data which reveals or contains racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious and philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, health data, sex life and sexual orientation.
We do not intend to actively collect special categories of personal data about you. Whilst we will use reasonable efforts to limit our holding of such data, please be aware that we may hold such data incidentally. For example, where you volunteer special category data to use, such as if you send us an email containing special category data.
What if you do not provide the personal data requested?
Unless and until you make a decision to engage in a business transaction with us (such as asking us to sell an item for you or bidding on an item) you are not required to provide us with any personal data. If you do not provide us with certain information when requested, we will not be able to perform all or part of the contract we have entered into with you, or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations.
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it (as identified above in the What we use this personal data for column), unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason which is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the lawful basis which allows us to do so.
How do we collect your personal data?
We typically collect personal data about you when you provide information to us when communicating or transacting with us in writing, by filling in forms, by interacting with us at trade shows or events, or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise.
For example:
• when you register with us for bidding;
• when you provide us information at a trade show or event;
• when you consign an item to one of our auctions or private treaty sales;
• when you subscribe to our newsletters via our website.
We may also automatically collect certain data when you interact with our website such as technical data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies. Please see our Cookie Policy for further details. In addition, we may receive personal information about you from other entities within our group.
Who will we share your personal data with?
We may share your personal data where this is required by law, where it is necessary to perform our contract with you, or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so. We may need to share your personal data with:
• other entities within our group as part of our regular reporting activities in company performance, in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise, for assistance in relation to marketing and business development, and for system maintenance support and hosting of data;
• professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers to the extent such information is relevant to their performance of their services;
• agencies who assist us with anti-money laundering checks and fraud and crime detection and prevention;
• any of our service providers where such information is relevant to their performance of such services.
We may share your personal data with third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the business. We may also need to share your personal data with a regulator or to otherwise comply with applicable law or judicial process or if we reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with judicial or regulatory proceedings, a court order or other legal process.
We may transfer the personal data we collect about you outside of the UK to other countries including Italy and Spain where the parties listed above are based for the purposes listed above. Italy and Spain are subject to the same standard of data protection law as in the UK.
How long will we retain your personal data?
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, accounting or reporting requirements and our legitimate interests in maintaining such personal information in our records. In doing this we will have regard to the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. Once we no longer require your personal data for the purposes we collected it for, we will securely destroy your personal data in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
Accuracy of personal data
Your rights in relation to your personal data
You have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the personal data we hold about you under certain circumstances. These rights are to:
• request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”) and request certain information in relation to its processing;
• request rectification of your personal data;
• request the erasure of your personal data;
• request the restriction of processing of your personal data;
• object to the processing of your personal data;
• not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing which significantly affects you;
• request the transfer of your personal data to another party.
If you want to exercise one of these rights please contact us at info@harmers.com. We will do our best to accommodate your request or objection but please note that not all rights are absolute. You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to a supervisory authority for data protection issues. In the UK, the supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Fees
You will not usually 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 for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such 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 the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
Right to withdraw consent
In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal data for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact info@harmers.com. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose(s) you originally agreed to unless we now have an alternative legal basis for doing so.
Changes to this privacy notice
Further information
This Privacy Notice was written with brevity and clarity in mind and is not an exhaustive account of all aspects of our collection and use of personal data. If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact info@harmers.com.