Data Protection and Privacy Notification Policy

1.            Who is responsible for your data

WH Ireland Limited (“WH Ireland”) recognise the importance of respecting your information and maintaining confidentiality.

WH Ireland is acting as the data controller for the purposes of this agreement, pursuant to the terms of The Data Protection Act 2018 (being the UK’s implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU2016/679) (“UK GDPR”).  WH Ireland’s registered office is at 24 Martin Lane, London EC4R 0DR and its telephone number is 0207 220 1666.  If you want to discuss how your information is processed you can contact the Data Protection Officer of WH Ireland who can be contacted on dataprotectionofficer@whirelandplc.com or at the address and on the telephone number set out in this paragraph.

2.            Types of personal data we collect

WH Ireland collects personal data from you at various points during our relationship with you, including when applying to become a Client, or using our website. We may collect and process the following categories of information about you (please note this list is not exhaustive):

Category of Personal Information Description
Personal identifiers Title, name, surname, gender, date of birth.
Contact Permanent residential address, correspondence address, home / mobile / work phone number and E-mail address.
Social demographic Nationality, country of birth, city of birth, country of issue of identity card / passport, Politically Exposed Person (“PEP”) classification, tax residency, employment and earnings.
Documentary evidence Details about you stored on documents in different formats, or copies of them. This may include documents such as passport, drivers licence, birth certificate or bank statements.
Social relationships Marital status and nominated beneficiaries.
Financial data Bank accounts, IBAN numbers and SWIFT / BIC codes.
National identifier A number or code given to you by a government to identify who you are, such as a national insurance number, passport number or Tax Identification Number.
Behavioural Investment risk profile, other investment arrangements (which may be intended to be transferred to our arrangement), intended retirement age, and nominated beneficiaries linked to death benefits.

You may also provide further information (either on request or voluntarily) by email, post, in face-to-face meetings or by phone. Finally, your third parties appointed by you may also pass on information to us which you have provided to them and which relates to the administration of our services.

3.            How we collect your personal data

We collect information from our Clients predominantly through our application form but also through any subsequent interactions with you. We use different methods to collect data from and about you, including through:

  • Direct interactions. You may give us your identity, contact and financial data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email, online and face-to-face meetings or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
    • Apply for our products or services;
    • Subscribe to our services;
    • Request marketing to be sent to you;
    • Provide information over the telephone which may be recorded; or
    • Give us some 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 and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy on our website https://www.whirelandplc.com/privacy-and-cookies-policy for further details.
  • Third party sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties as set out below:
    • Contact and financial data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services; and
    • Identity and contact data from third parties appointed by you.

The above lists under each method are not exhaustive.

4.            Why and how WH Ireland uses your personal data

WH Ireland uses your personal data for the following purposes:

  • In connection with the provision of services to you. This may involve seeking, receiving and processing instructions from you and / or a third party appointed by you, fulfilling our obligations to you, responding to any request made by you and / or a third party appointed by you and / or communicating changes to you investment(s) / services in question.
  • In order to adequately audit and risk assess the services provided.
  • In order to contact you either directly or through a third party appointed by you, including updating you in relation to our services.
  • In order to carry out full customer due diligence.
  • In order to comply with relevant regulations and obligations including but not limited to obligations relating to prevention of money laundering and funding of terrorism, fraud and crime prevention. This includes performing screening checks at application stage and on a periodic basis thereafter. WH Ireland does not use systems to make automated decisions based on personal data collected.
  • WH Ireland may also use your personal data to perform research and analysis aimed at improving our services.

5.            How long WH Ireland retains your personal data

WH Ireland will keep your personal data during the period you are a Client, and in most instances up to six years once this relationship has ceased, for the following reasons:

  • To respond to any questions or complaints;
  • To demonstrate that you are, or have been, treated fairly;
  • To satisfy our record keeping obligations in accordance with the applicable legislation and regulations WH Ireland may be required to keep your personal data for longer than six years if it cannot be deleted for legal, regulatory or technical reasons, but it will always only be retained for as long is required, then it will be destroyed.

WH Ireland may also keep your personal data for research or statistical purposes. In these circumstances, appropriate measures will be established to ensure your privacy is protected, and the personal data is only used for the purposes intended.

6.            Sharing your personal data

WH Ireland might share your personal data with third parties, in limited circumstances. Predominantly that sharing is carried out in order to ensure that our services are provided and administered successfully and in compliance with our regulatory and professional obligations. Your personal data may be shared by WH Ireland as follows:

  • We will share your personal data with third parties appointed by you, ceding / receiving investment providers and investment companies where necessary in connection with our services and services intrinsically linked to the same.
  • We will share your personal data with third-party(s) who assist in the day-to-day administration of your investments. The types of personal data shared with the third-party(s) are detailed under section two of this Policy. The processing of your personal data by the third-party(s) is governed by agreement(s) and fall(s) within the scope of the FCA’s rules and guidance particularly on governance, risk management and systems and controls. WH Ireland cannot, and have not, contracted out its regulatory obligations as part of the outsourcing agreement.
  • We will share your personal data amongst companies within the same Group of companies as WH Ireland (including companies which partially own, or are owned by, WH Ireland and / or which share the WH Ireland brand, as they will be involved in connection with the purposes identified above.
  • We will share your personal data with WH Ireland’s regulators including, for example, HM Revenue & Customs (and / or other relevant tax authorities) and the Financial Conduct Authority (and / or other relevant regulators), our auditors and legal advisers in order to comply with relevant obligations, regulations and other legal requirements.
  • We may need to disclose your personal data if required by law, if we believe that disclosure is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, or a court order or legal process served on us, in order to enforce our terms and other agreements or to protect the property, rights or safety of WH Ireland, our Clients or others.
  • In the event that WH Ireland goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, your personal data will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred.
  • The only third party with whom we have contracted to assist us in providing services is SEI Investments (Europe) Ltd and Pershing Securities Limited, and they have agreed to maintain the confidentiality of your data. Such service providers will only have access to your data as is necessary and are prohibited from any unlawful use of your data.
  • We may share your personal data with analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website.
  • We do not sell your information to third parties, unless we have your prior written consent.
  • We will not seek to share your personal data other than in the way set out above without taking steps to gain your consent to the same. However, if we are unable to obtain instructions, we may share information where, in our view, it is in your legitimate interest for us to do so.

7.            Sharing your personal data internationally

As set out above, WH Ireland will share your information within the WH Ireland group of companies and with third parties. As such, this may involve transferring your personal data internationally to receivers located outside the UK. WH Ireland will take steps to ensure that transfers of personal data to receivers located outside of the UK are legitimate and, are covered by either UK adequacy regulations (in respect of the EEA and all countries, territories and international organisations covered by European Commission adequacy decisions valid as at 31 December 2020), or who has adopted appropriate safeguards as listed in Article 46 of the UK GDPR. WH Ireland will only share your personal data outside of the UK where it has decided that the third country where your data will be shared provides an adequate level of protection. By using this website, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country.

8.            Security of your personal data

WH Ireland is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. A variety of security technologies and procedures are used to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, use, or disclosure.

9.            Cookies or other tracking technologies

Our website uses cookies but does not store any personal or company information on the cookie, such as an e-mail address or name. The cookie is used to capture usage data of the website, for reviewing performance of the website, including how long you are spending on pages and how long it takes to load the information.

10.          Sharing your personal data internationally

Lawful processing

In addition to our Data Protection and Privacy Notification Policy, your privacy is protected by law. WH Ireland are legally only allowed to collect and process personal data where there exists a proper reason to do so. The law says WH Ireland must have one or more of these reasons:

  • You have provided your consent for WH Ireland to do so;
  • It is necessary for the performance and / or servicing of your investment(s);
  • There is a legal obligation;
  • In order to protect your vital interests or of another individual;
  • It is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested WH Ireland; and
  • It is in WH Ireland’s legitimate interest.

Below is a list of ways in which we may use your personal data, which of the reasons we rely on to do so, and what our legitimate interests are (this is not an exhaustive list):

Why we use your information Our reasons Our legitimate interest
To manage our relationship with you; To develop new ways to meet our members’ needs and grow our business; To provide guidance about our products and services. Your explicit consent; Fulfilling contractual obligations; Our legitimate interests; Our legal duty. Keeping our records about you up to date; Seeking your consent when we need it to contact you; Being efficient about how we fulfil our legal and contractual duties.
To deliver our products and services; To make and manage customer payments; To collect and recover money owed to us. Fulfilling contractual obligations; Our legitimate interest; Our legal duty. To develop products and services and what we charge for them; Being efficient about how we fulfil our legal and contractual duties.
To detect, investigate, report and seek to prevent financial crime; To manage risk for us and our customers; To comply with laws and regulations applicable to us; To respond to complaints and seek to resolve them. Fulfilling contractual obligations; Our legitimate interest; Our legal duty. To develop and improve how we deal with financial crime, as well as carrying out our legal duties; Comply with regulations applicable to us; Being efficient about how we fulfil our legal and contractual duties.
To run our business in an efficient manner by managing our business capability, planning, governances, communications and audit. Our legitimate interest; Our legal duty. Comply with regulations applicable to us; Being efficient about how we fulfil our legal and contractual duties.

WH Ireland does not intentionally collect personal data that could reveal your racial or ethnic origin, physical or mental health, religious beliefs or alleged commission or conviction of criminal offences. Such information is considered “sensitive personal data”.

WH Ireland will only collect this information where one of the above reasons are satisfied. We cannot prevent you or a third party appointed by you from disclosing the same to WH Ireland as part of your correspondence with us but you should ensure that such information is only provided where it is absolutely necessary and in circumstances where you would be content for us to use it in the manner described above.

Right to access your personal data

You also have the right to request access to the personal data that we hold about you. Should you wish to request a copy of your personal data, or have any questions in relation to your personal data, please contact WH Ireland using the email address dataprotectionofficer@whirelandplc.com.

Requests for access to your personal data will be processed free of charge. However, if we deem that requests for access are being made in a frequent, excessive and repetitive manner or on unfounded basis, WH Ireland reserves the right to charge a reasonable fee to meet our administrative costs.

Right to stop WH Ireland from using your personal data

You have the right to object to WH Ireland using your personal data or ask WH Ireland to delete, remove or stop using your personal data. You also have the right to restrict WH Ireland from using your data. This means that your personal data can only be used for certain things such as legal claims or in order to exercise legal rights.

During such instances, WH Ireland will not use or share your personal data in other ways. You may ask WH Ireland to restrict processing your personal data if it is not accurate; if it has been unlawfully used but you don’t want WH Ireland to delete it; if it is not relevant anymore but you want WH Ireland to keep it for use in legal claims; or you have already asked WH Ireland to stop using your data but you’re waiting for confirmation as to whether WH Ireland are allowed to use it. WH Ireland may need to keep or continue to use your data to comply with any regulatory reporting requirements or similar requirements.

Right to withdraw your consent

You have the right to withdraw your consent. Please contact WH Ireland if you wish to do so. Where consent is the only lawful basis upon which your personal data can be processed, withdrawing your consent may mean WH Ireland cannot provide you with a full service. If this is the case, WH Ireland will clarify this to you.

Right to rectify inaccurate personal data

You have the right to question any personal data we have about you that you think is wrong or incomplete. Should you do so, WH Ireland will take reasonable steps to check the accuracy of all information held and correct it where necessary.

Other Rights and Additional Information

Under the UK GDPR the rights you are provided with are: the rights to be informed, the right of access, the right to rectification, the right to erasure, the right to restrict processing, the right to data portability, (in some cases) the right to object, the right to withdraw consent and rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling. Key details of these rights are set out above. But full details of these rights are set out on the Information Commissioners website: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/.

Right to complain

Please let us know if you are unhappy with how we have used your personal data. Contact details for all complaints can be found on our Complaints policy, available from our website: https://www.whirelandplc.com/complaints-handling-procedure.

You also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority if you consider the processing of the personal data relating to you infringes the UK GDPR.  In the UK, the relevant supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office and further details of this process can be found on their website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/.

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 [1] one month. Occasionally it may take us up to three months to respond 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.

11.          Updates to this policy

We will occasionally update this Policy to reflect changes in the applicable Regulation, and / or relevant legislation as well as both company and customer feedback. We will contact you to inform you of the same whilst the revised Policy can be found on our website (https://www.whirelandplc.com/our-privacy-notices).

 

This webpage was last updated on 27 November 2023.