GDPR Policy & ICO registration

GDPR Policy and Information Commissioner’s Office registration

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) came into force on 25 May 2018.

The new Regulation standardises data protection laws and processing across the EU, giving people greater rights to access and control their personal information.

Our Commitment

The Ancestor Finder is committed to ensuring protection of all personal information that we hold, and to provide and to protect all such data. We recognise our obligations in updating and expanding this program to meet the requirements of GDPR.

The Ancestor Finder is dedicated to safeguarding the personal information under our control and in maintaining a system that meets our obligations under the new regulations. Our practice is summarised below.

How We comply with GDPR

Personal data of clients and other living people is always held securely separately from historical research.  

The Ancestor Finder has measures to ensure compliancy.

  • Policies and Procedures — data protection policies and procedures meet the requirements and standards of the GDPR and any relevant data protection laws, including:
    • Data Protection – our main policy and procedure document for data protection meets the standards and requirements of the GDPR. Accountability and governance measures are in place to ensure that we understand and adequately disseminate and evidence our obligations and responsibilities; with a dedicated focus on privacy and the rights of individuals.
    • Data Retention and Erasure – our retention policy ensures that we meet the “data minimisation” and “storage limitation” principles and that personal information is stored, archived and destroyed in accordance with our obligations. We have procedures in place to meet the new “Right to Erasure” obligation.
    • Data Breaches – our procedures ensure that we have safeguards in place to identify, assess, investigate and report any personal data breach as early as possible.
    • International Data Transfers and Third-Party Disclosures – where The Ancestor Finder stores or transfers personal information outside the EU, we have robust procedures in place to secure the integrity of the data.   
    • Subject Access Request (SAR) – our SAR procedures accommodate the 30-day timeframe for providing the requested information and for making this provision free of charge
    • Privacy Notice/Policy – our Privacy Notice complies with the GDPR, ensuring that all individuals whose personal information we process have been informed of why we need it, how it is used, what their rights are, who the information is disclosed to and what safeguarding measures are in place to protect their information.
    • Obtaining Consent – our consent mechanisms for obtaining personal data, ensuring that individuals understand what they are providing, why and how we use it and giving clear, defined ways to consent to us processing their information.
    • Direct Marketing – the wording and processes for direct marketing, include clear opt-in mechanisms for marketing subscriptions; a clear notice and method for opting out and providing unsubscribe features on all subsequent marketing materials.
    • Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) – where we process personal information that is considered high risk, we have stringent procedures for carrying out impact assessments that comply fully with the GDPR’s Article 35 requirements. We have implemented documentation processes that record each assessment, allow us to rate the risk posed by the processing activity and implement mitigating measures to reduce the risk posed to the data subject(s).
    • Processor Agreements – Not applicable – we do not use any third-party to process personal information on our behalf. 

Data Subject Rights

We provide easy-to-access information via our website, of an individual’s right to access any personal information that The Ancestor Finder processes about them and to request information about:

  • what personal data we hold about them
  • the purposes of the processing
  • the categories of personal data concerned
  • the recipients to whom the personal data has/will be disclosed
  • how long we intend to store your personal data for
  • if we did not collect the data directly from them, information about the source
  • the right to have incomplete or inaccurate data about them corrected or completed and the process for requesting this
  • the right to request erasure of personal data (where applicable) or to restrict processing in accordance with data protection laws, as well as to object to any direct marketing from us and to be informed about any automated decision-making that we use
  • the right to lodge a complaint or seek judicial remedy and who to contact in such instances.

Information Security and Technical and Organisational Measures

The Ancestor Finder takes the privacy and security of individuals and their personal information very seriously and take every reasonable measure to protect and secure the personal data that we process. We have robust information security policies and procedures in place to protect personal information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction.

GDPR Roles and Registration of the Information Commissioner’s Office

Melanie Harries is designated as our Appointed Person on Data Compliance and she is responsible for identifying any gap areas and implementing new policies, procedures and measures.  Melanie Harries and The Ancestor Finder are registered with the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) under reference number ZA773804. 

If you have any questions about our GDPR compliance policy, privacy policy or obligations under the Information Commissioner’s Office, please contact Melanie Harries via our website www.theancestorfinder.com

Last reviewed 24 July 2020