Privacy Notice

1. Introduction

SJ Executive Assistance ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your personal information and respecting your privacy.

This Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, store and protect personal information when you visit our website, make an enquiry, communicate with us or become a client of SJ Executive Assistance.

We process personal information in accordance with applicable UK data protection legislation, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

2. Who We Are

SJ Executive Assistance is a sole trader business operated by Sarah Jarvis, providing professional executive assistance and business administration services.

For personal information collected and used for our own business purposes, SJ Executive Assistance acts as the data controller.

When providing executive assistance to a client, we may also process personal information on that client's behalf and under their instructions. In these circumstances, the client may be the data controller and SJ Executive Assistance may act as a data processor.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or how we handle personal information, please contact:

3. Personal Information We May Collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with SJ Executive Assistance.

Website enquiries and prospective clients

When you contact us or submit an enquiry, we may collect:

• Your name
• Email address
• Telephone number, where provided
• Business or company name, where provided
• The service or package you are interested in
• Information contained within your enquiry
• Information discussed during a discovery call or other pre-contract communication

Clients

If you become a client, we may also collect and process:

• Business and personal contact details
• Client onboarding information
• Correspondence and records of communications
• Information relating to the services you have requested
• Calendar, meeting and scheduling information where required to provide the service
• Invoice, payment and transaction records
• Contract and service information
• Information contained within documents, emails or other materials you provide or give us access to
• Other information reasonably required to deliver the agreed executive assistance services

Where we provide services involving access to a client's systems, emails, calendars, documents or records, we may also process personal information relating to the client's employees, customers, suppliers or other contacts on the client's behalf.

4. Special Category Personal Information

We do not routinely request special category personal information through our website enquiry form, and we ask prospective clients not to provide this type of information unless it is necessary.

However, due to the nature of executive assistance services, we may occasionally encounter special category or other sensitive personal information contained within information, communications or systems that a client has authorised us to access.

Where this occurs, such information will only be processed where necessary, handled with appropriate confidentiality and security, and processed in accordance with applicable data protection requirements and, where relevant, the client's instructions.

5. How and Why We Use Personal Information

We may use personal information to:

• Respond to enquiries
• Arrange and conduct discovery calls
• Provide information about our services
• Take steps towards entering into a client agreement
• Set up and manage client relationships
• Deliver agreed executive assistance and administrative services
• Communicate with clients
• Manage appointments, meetings and calendars where this forms part of an agreed service
• Prepare and maintain invoices, payment records and business records
• Manage and protect our business, systems and information
• Meet our legal, regulatory, tax and accounting obligations
• Establish, exercise or defend legal claims where necessary
• Send marketing communications where we have an appropriate lawful basis to do so

6. Our Lawful Bases for Processing

Under UK data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal information. The lawful basis will depend on why the information is being used.

We may rely on:

• Contract - where processing is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract or to perform a contract with you.
• Legitimate interests - where processing is necessary for the legitimate interests of operating and protecting SJ Executive Assistance, managing enquiries and client relationships, maintaining appropriate business records, improving our services and communicating effectively with prospective and existing clients, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.
• Legal obligation - where we need to process or retain information to comply with a legal requirement, including applicable tax, accounting or regulatory obligations.
• Consent - where we have specifically asked for your consent for a particular activity. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time.

Different lawful bases may apply to different types of processing.

7. Marketing Communications

We will only send marketing communications where permitted by applicable law and where we have an appropriate lawful basis to do so.

Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time by contacting hello@sjexecutiveassistance.com or by using any unsubscribe option provided within the communication.

Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing that took place before consent was withdrawn.

8. How Long We Keep Personal Information

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and to meet any applicable legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

As a general guide:

• Unsuccessful or unconverted enquiries may be retained for up to 12 months following the last meaningful contact.
• Active client information will be retained for the duration of the client relationship.
• Client documents and operational information will be reviewed when the client relationship ends and deleted when they are no longer reasonably required, subject to any contractual, legal or legitimate business requirement to retain them.
• Financial, invoicing and accounting records may be retained for the period required under applicable tax and accounting requirements.

We do not retain personal information indefinitely simply because it may potentially be useful in the future.

9. How We Store and Protect Personal Information

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, accidental loss, alteration, disclosure or destruction.

These measures include appropriate password and authentication controls, device and data encryption, restricted access, secure business storage arrangements, software and security updates, and procedures for responding to suspected information-security incidents.

Access to SJ Executive Assistance business information is restricted to authorised access required for the operation of the business and delivery of client services.