At the Motor Accident Solicitors Society (MASS), we’re committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to enquiries@mass.org.uk  or by writing to MASS, c/o Corrigan Accountants Ltd, 1st Floor, 25 King Street, Bristol, BS1 4PB. Alternatively, you can telephone 0117 925 9604.

Who are we?

The Motor Accident Solicitors Society is a private company limited by guarantee. Our Company Number is 10206112.

How do we collect information from you?

We obtain information about you when you use our website, for example, when you contact us about products and services or if you register to receive our newsletters.

What type of information is collected from you?

The personal information we collect might include your name, address, email address, IP address, and information regarding what pages are accessed and when.

How is your information used?

We may use your information to:

• send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest such as changes in legislation, business advice and promotions of our services
• to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us;
• dealing with entries into a competition or poll;
• seek your views or comments on the services we provide;
• notify you of changes to our services;
• process a grant or job application.

We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

Who has access to your information?

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties.

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Third Party Service Providers working on our behalf: We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to send you mailings). However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.

Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets to any third party or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation, or if we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our supporters and customers. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

Your choices

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email or other messaging service unless you have given your prior consent. We will not contact you for marketing purposes by post if you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted. You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email – link to enquiries@mass.org.uk

How you can access and update your information

The accuracy of your information is important to us. If you change email address, or any of the other information we hold is inaccurate or out of date, please email enquiries@mass.org.uk

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information MASS  holds about you.

Security precautions in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of your information

When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely. Any sensitive information is encrypted and protected with the following software – 128 Bit encryption on SSL. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will appear on the bottom of web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Use of ‘cookies’

1. What are cookies?

Cookies are widely used tiny pieces of software (files) that are installed on a computer or mobile device when an individual visits a website.

Windows Explorer, which is one of the main internet browsers, will usually store these files in a folder called ‘cookies’ in ‘documents and permissions’ on computers running Microsoft Windows.

Cookies allow websites to recognise that a user on an individual computer has previously visited the site. The cookies save some information about that user for when they access the site again in the future.

By using and browsing the MASS website, you consent to cookies being used in accordance with our policy. If you do not consent, you must turn off cookies or refrain from using the site.

Most browsers allow you to turn off cookies. To do this, look at the ‘help’ menu on your browser. Switching off cookies may restrict your use of the website and/or delay or affect the way in which it operates.

2. What types of cookies are there?

Broadly, there are 4 types of cookie:

Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are essential to make a website work and enable features that users have specifically asked for. These types of cookies are commonly used with e-billing. Without use of cookies, these features of the website could not operate.

Performance cookies. These cookies collect anonymous information about users for the purpose of assessing the performance of a website. Common uses include well-known web analytics tools such as ‘Google Analytics’.

Functionality cookies. These are cookies that automatically remember choices that users have previously made in order to improve their experience next time they visit a website. For example, where users select their preferred settings and layout.

Targeting or Advertising cookies. These cookies are similar to performance cookies, in that they collect information about users’ behaviour. However, this information is used at individual user level to advertise products and services to users on the basis of the behavioural information collected.

3. What cookies does the MASS website use?

The table below shows what cookies we use and why

(table updated 25/02/2020)

Consent

If you continue to use our website we will assume that you are happy to receive all cookies from our website.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third-party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third-party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

16 or Under

We are concerned to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under‚ please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.

Transferring your information outside of Europe

As part of the services offered to you through this website, the information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Union (“EU”). These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK. By submitting your personal data, you’re agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing. If we transfer your information outside of the EU in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this Policy.

If you use our services while you are outside the EU, your information may be transferred outside the EU in order to provide you with those services.

Website recording

Our web site may also use the web site recording service that may record mouse clicks, mouse movements, page scrolling and any text keyed into website forms. Data collected by website recording is for [Company Name] internal use only. The information collected is used to improve our website usability and is stored and used for aggregated and statistical reporting.

Review of this Policy

We keep this Policy under regular review. This Policy was last updated in February 2020.

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