A1 Customs Declarations LTD PRIVACY POLICY

If you or your employer are using our services and you have some responsibility for customs and export control (for example as an administrator or signing the relevant forms) then we will collect, store and use your personal data for the purposes of performing customs brokerage services for you or your employer, which will include in particular: 

• completing any documents, amending product or service codes, and paying any duties, taxes or penalties required under all applicable laws and regulations; and
• acting as your or your employer’s appointed agent for customs and export control purposes and performing customs clearance and entry.

We will collect and store your name, job title, contact details and, depending on your role, your signature and/or other personal data provided to us via declaration instructions or forms.

If you are an individual, a sole trader or in a partnership, we may also use your information to perform a credit check to assess your credit worthiness.

In performing our customs brokerage services we share the personal data we collect with the following third parties:

• Government agencies and customs authorities (including HMRC), and their contractors, to the extent necessary for us to perform our customs brokerage services;
• The British Chambers of Commerce, with whom we share offices and some IT      systems, and who assist us in our operations.
• Accredited local Chambers of Commerce within the British Chambers of Commerce network to the extent necessary for them to perform their role as our local agents in respect of our services;
• Credit reference agencies for the purposes of assessing your credit worthiness;      and
• Our technology and back office suppliers, our customs brokerage software      provider, to the extent necessary for them to perform their services to us. 

We may also share your personal data with third parties where we are obliged to do so by any applicable laws, regulations, or any binding rules, directions or requirements.

We will not keep your personal information for longer than we need it for the purposes of performing customs brokerage services for you. Typically, we will securely delete your personal information 7 years after we have completed our services, unless we are required to keep it for a longer period by any applicable laws or regulations or as required by customs agents and government authorities (including HMRC). If we are required to keep your personal information for a longer period, we will securely delete it when that period expires.

Where the relevant customs laws and rules require processing of your personal data, we do so on the basis that it is necessary to comply with those laws and rules.

Otherwise, except in the circumstances highlighted below, if you are an individual, sole trader or in a partnership, we process your information on the basis that it is: (i) necessary to perform our contract with you; and (ii) in our legitimate interests to administer and operate our services and business.

Where we collect information about you for the purposes of carrying out a credit reference check, we do so on the basis that it is in our legitimate interests as a business to credit check our account customers and potential customers in order to safeguard our finances. We consider that our use of your information is proportionate because we will only pass limited information to reputable credit reference agencies.

If you are an individual within a corporate organisation, where our processing is not required by law or customs rules, we process your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest in administering and operating our services and business.

If you contact us through social media, through our “contact us” page on our website, or if you email us or telephone us, we will collect and store the information you give to us. This information will typically include your name, contact details and any other information you provide. We will use this information in order to respond to your enquiry.

We will share the information we collect with the British Chambers of Commerce and the Accredited Chambers of Commerce within the British Chambers of Commerce network to the extent necessary to respond to your enquiry. 

Other than as set out above, we will only share the information we collect with our suppliers to the extent it is necessary for them to perform their services to us. Most notably this will be with the providers of our website and IT systems and with third parties where we are obliged to do so by any applicable laws, regulations, or any binding rules, directions or requirements.

We will securely delete your information 24 months after the last time we communicated with you unless you have obtained customs brokerage services from us, in which case we will retain your information as highlighted above.

We do this on the basis that it is in our legitimate interests to respond effectively to your enquiry and to record the content of that enquiry and our response to it for future reference. 

If you are a visitor to our website then we will collect information about your session in our server logs (such as your IP address, browser type and pages visited), and if your browser is configured to allow it, by means of setting cookies.

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to make improvements to it. Depending on the purpose, we may use session cookies (which remain on your browser until you leave the site) and/ or persistent cookies (which remain on your browser or hard drive for a longer period of time).

We use the following categories of cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies. These cookies are required for the operation of our      website. They include, for example, session cookies and cookies that enable you to log into any secure areas of our website;
• Analytical/performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily; and
• Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you.

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our website.

We do not share the information we gather using cookies with anyone else.

We will only use analytics/performance cookies and functionality cookies with your consent.

Our legal basis for strictly necessary cookies is legitimate interests:

• we have a legitimate interest in providing a fully functional website;
• without setting these cookies you would not be able to access certain critical      features of our website; and
• we consider that the use of your personal information is proportionate      because it is limited to the purpose of allowing you to access all areas of our website. It is likely to be within your reasonable expectation because use of cookies is commonplace and we clearly notify you about our use of cookies on our website. Accordingly, it doesn’t interfere with your interests, rights or freedoms.

Some of the customs agents and government authorities to whom we pass your personal data in the course of performing our customs brokerage services will be located outside of the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area.

If you are an individual, a sole trader or in a partnership who or which is a customer of our customs brokerage services, we do so on the basis that it is necessary in order to perform the contract between us.

Otherwise, we do so on the basis that it is necessary to do so for important reasons of public interest, those reasons being the facilitation of international trade and compliance with customs rules.

Otherwise, where we transfer your personal information outside of the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we will do so in compliance with data protection law and ensure that an adequate level of protection is given to the personal information being transferred, by either:

• relying on a decision by the European Commission that the data protection      legislation and controls in the destination country is “adequate”; or
• by requiring the supplier to enter into standard contractual clauses with us,      which are approved by the European Union as providing equivalent      protection to what would be in place had the personal data remained in the      European Economic Area.

Other than as set out above, we will not transfer any personal information outside of the European Economic Area.

We do not make any automated decisions using your personal data which have an effect on you personally.