Privacy Policy

Last updated: 6th June 2023

Thank you for trusting St. George Virtual Assistant with your information. Below is how your information is used and why.

1.         WHO INFORMATION IS COLLECTED ON

Information is processed on:

"Prospects"                             contacts working at or connected with potential clients; potential clients

"Clients"                                  who have bought services from St. George Virtual Assistant, and "Client Contacts" who are individuals employed by or contracted to Clients;

"Suppliers", "Associates"        suppliers or potential suppliers of goods or services to St George Virtual Assistant;

"Affiliates/Referrers"              who have signed up to our affiliate scheme or who have referred Prospects to St. George Virtual Assistant;

2.         OUR POLICY

St. George Virtual Assistant promises respectful treatment of the personal information of everyone contact is made with. 

This Policy explains how that is done – when and why your information is collected, how it is used, situations when others can see or use it, and how it is kept secure.

To be clear up front, we do not sell, rent or trade email lists with anyone else.

This Policy is split into sections, depending on who you are.

  • Section A is for everyone and includes information about cookies on https://www.stgeorgeva.co.uk:

  • Section B is for you if you are or work for a business prospect.

  • If you are a Client or a Client Contact, Section C is for you.

  • Section D is for you if information is held about you purely because we are providing services to a Client.

  • And if you’re a supplier, associate or Affiliate/Referrer, Section E is for you.

SECTION A: FOR EVERYONE

Whoever you are, the intention is to use your information to make things work smoothly for you in your experience of dealing with St George Virtual Assistant. If that’s not how it turns out for you, please make sure to make contact in writing, which you can do by emailing sarah@stgeorgeva.co.uk

This Policy is kept under regular review, and may be revised as time goes on. Please check back here from time to time to make sure you’ve got the latest information.

  • A.1. OUR GENERAL APPROACH TO PERSONAL DATA

St. George Virtual Assistant is committed to protecting your privacy and honouring your legal rights to control how your personal data is used.

Personal data is only collected when there is a need:

  • because you have asked us for something to be done;

  • to reply to queries or complaints;

  • to develop and manage business relationships;

  • to help grow the business and fulfil contracts;

  • to provide goods or services to clients;

  • to calculate payments to associates or Affiliates/Referrers;

  • to meet our legal obligations.

St. George Virtual Assistant tries to make sure the information held is accurate and up to date and is no more than needed.

  • A.2. CATEGORIES OF DATA

The types of information processed depends on the nature of St. George Virtual Assistant’s relationship with you.

Information may be processed about you that you have yourself provided to us or published generally on the internet through social media or on other websites.

In all cases, we will have what identifying and communication information that is relevant and that can be sensibly obtained: that is, your name, email address, employer or business name, job title or position, contact address, social media addresses, and some of the information published by you in your social media output to the extent that it may be relevant to our interactions.

If you are or work for a prospect, we will aim to obtain and process information that is relevant to building a business relationship with you and doing business together, which may relate to your business and your personal interests.

If you are or work for a customer or supplier, we will also keep records of interactions, the work done for you or commissioned from you, the progress of work, and financial and accounting records.

If we process information about you purely because of services provided to others, please see Section D below.  Please note that your rights may be subject to applicable exemptions.

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your information, or the response to any request about your personal data, please take it up in the first instance by emailing sarah@stgeorgeva.co.uk.

If it can not be sorted, please contact the official authority, and you can raise your concerns with them.

The data regulators for the UK can be found via the below link:
UK- https://ico.org.uk/

  • A.3. NO SALE OR EXCHANGE OF YOUR DATA

St George VA does not sell or exchange your personal data with organisations who may want to sell you something or use your data for research or other purposes.

  • A.4. DATA LOCATION AND PLATFORMS

Like most small businesses, St. George Virtual Assistant does not have any tailor-made software – mainstream packages are used for everything from Client records, to email, to accounting.

This means that some of your data may be held in the EEA, and some may be held in services in the USA or elsewhere. Mainstream suppliers have been picked with appropriate security standards.

  • A.5. SOME OF YOUR DATA MAY BE SHARED WITH THESE PEOPLE

St. George Virtual Assistant has an outsourced support team for the business which may include Virtual Assistants, Web Designers, IT support, Sales and Marketing, Accounting and more. They have limited access to your data, where the service they provide to us means they need it.

For example

  • If our IT support wants to check the functionality of a laptop or back up, they may need temporary access to information that may include something about you.

  • If we invoice you, an Accountant needs to process the information in the invoice.

Our software will be used to access any data needed.  Copying or sharing by the team is not permitted and active monitoring takes place for any potential breaches.

Your information/advice is held in the strictest confidence. St. George Virtual Assistant and its team are contracted to strict confidentiality clauses.

We restricts who can export or download data that is held to a limited number of individuals who are authorised to back up data.

If you want to know who is on the team, please email and ask.

  • A.6. HOW LONG IS YOUR DATA KEPT?

Your information will be kept for the length of time set out in our retention period.

  • A.7. WANT TO SEE WHAT THE INFORMATION HELD ON YOU?

If you want to know what information St. George Virtual Assistant has about you (if any) email sarah@stgeorgeva.co.uk and give your name and email address(es). You may be required to confirm your identity before proceeding.

Provided we can legitimately disclose the information to you, you will receive all the information on record.

  • A.8. WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS

You have the right to know what information St. George Virtual Assistant is collecting on you, and to amend it if it is inaccurate.

If you feel for some reason we have information that should not be kept, or it is out of date or otherwise wrong, please email sarah@stgeorgeva.co.uk and appropriate action will be taken.

Most of the information held is not based on your individual consent but is based on us needing the information to run the business and provide goods and services.

You have a "right to be forgotten" - but that does have some legal limits to it. If you want your information to be removed, please request it in writing. If you have been a Client, all data may not be able to be removed so as to ensure compliance with the requirements of legal, accounting, taxation and insurance.

  • A.9. THE LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR DATA

The information held by St. George Virtual Assistant is based on the need need for information to run the business and provide services – either so as to perform the contract with you, or because of a legitimate business interest in processing your data.

In a few situations personal data is processed because of a legal obligation to do so.  This principally relates to our business, accounting and tax records.

SECTION B: PROSPECTS

Most of the information processed comes from you. It is processed so St. George Virtual Assistant can reply to you, know what you have asked before, what you were sent, and what information you gave.

Typically, we collect your name, contact details, how initial contact was made, and background information from you or published by you on social media or freely accessible on the internet, on why you might be interested in our services or a relevant contact for our business.

If we email you individually using our own email system, or we respond to an email sent to St George Virtual Assistant at any business email addresses, a copy of that email will also be stored.

If you make an enquiry via the website, details of that enquiry and the response will be kept for our data retention period.

SECTION C: CLIENTS

Once you buy something from St. George Virtual Assistant, we will collect information from you at the point of sale.

This will include the information collected from Prospects (above). We will collect your email address, phone number and postal address so as to provide what is contracted to us by you, invoice you and keep proper records of our business relationship.

We process your data to support the delivery of goods/services you have bought. Records are kept of goods/services provided to you, and information you give us, so as to support you when you need and to advise you of any additional services you may need.

  • C.1. THIRD PARTY DATA

As well as your own personal data, St. George Virtual Assistant understands that you may need to provide us with personal data relating to your employees, your workers, or third parties (often your clients or suppliers) – depending on the services being provided to you.  we hold all such information under strict confidentiality obligations, as set out in our terms of business, a copy of which can be requested.

  • C.2. FINANCIAL AND CREDIT CARD DETAILS

Credit card payments are handled by an external secure processor in accordance with their data security policies.

Limited information is received from our processor for us to tie up your payment with your invoice.

If you pay us by BACS or direct transfer, St. George Virtual Assistant knows only the information provided by the bank, which is usually the name of the person paying and how much and the reference number.

We do not routinely keep credit scores nor use credit reference agencies.

 

SECTION D: THIRD PARTY INFORMATION

St. George Virtual Assistant will act in accordance with your statutory rights, subject to the exclusions and exemptions that may apply.

When processing data about you on behalf of a Client, we are operating under the banner of our Client’s data privacy policy. Any enquiry will be referred from you to them, as they are the ‘data controller’ responsible for dealing with your query. But we will support that by providing relevant information to the Client for passing to you.

When we process data about you because of a direct connection between you and our business we are acting as a ‘data controller’ (and operating under this policy).

 

SECTION E: SUPPLIERS, ASSOCIATES AND AFFILIATES

If you become a supplier, associate or an Affiliate/Referrer St. George Virtual Assistant keeps a copy of the contract between us, and your bank details so you can be paid. A record is also kept of invoices/payments for accounting purposes.

We keep a record of the work you undertook for us/our clients along with any comments, reviews or suggestions about that work including complaints (if any) and their resolution.

This information is all needed to manage Client relationships and the supply chain.

If we set up an Affiliate/Referrer scheme, Affiliate/Referrer data will be held in accordance with this policy. We will ask you for information when you apply, and that information will be kept to administer the scheme.

If you are a Referrer, please be reminded that referrals that you make to us may only be made with the knowledge and consent of the person being referred.

 

3. COMPLAINTS

If you have a complaint about the way your information is being handled or about a response you received to a request for information or removal, please take this up in the first instance by emailing sarah@stgeorgeva.co.uk

If it cant be sorted, the relevant supervisory authority details can be found at https://ico.org.uk/

If you have any questions, please contact sarah@stgeorgeva.co.uk.