Privacy policy

Who we are

Keystone Secretarial Services, 167-169 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5PF, United Kingdom, is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under registration number ZC168532.

David Millar is responsible for data protection enquiries and can be reached at enquiries@keystonesecretarial.co.uk.

What we collect

Information you give us

• Your name, email address, telephone number and country of residence.
• What you need help with, your company number if you already have a UK company, and your timing.
• Details of directors, shareholders and people with significant control, where we are forming or maintaining a company for you.
• Identity documents and verification data required by law before we can act.
• Correspondence between us, including emails, call notes and documents you send.

Information we collect automatically

• Standard technical data such as IP address, device and browser type, and the pages you view.
• Analytics and advertising data, but only where you have given permission through our cookie banner.

Why we use it and our lawful basis

• To answer your enquiry and provide our services - performance of a contract, or steps taken at your request before entering one.
• To meet legal obligations - anti-money laundering checks, identity verification required by Companies House, record keeping and tax.
• To run and improve our business - our legitimate interests in keeping records, securing our systems and understanding how our services are found and used.
• Analytics and advertising cookies - your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

Identity checks and anti-money laundering

We are required to verify the identity of clients, directors and people with significant control before we act, and to verify identity with Companies House where the law requires it. We may use an electronic verification provider to do this. Records of those checks are kept for the period required by law, and we may be obliged to report suspicions to the authorities without telling you.

Who we share it with

• Companies House and HMRC, where a filing or registration requires it.
• A specialist identity verification provider, where checks are required.
• IT, email, hosting and document storage providers acting on our instructions, including our website host, Vercel.
• Professional advisers, insurers and auditors where necessary.
• Law enforcement or regulators where we are legally required to disclose.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for other organisations' marketing.

International transfers

Some of our providers process data outside the UK. Where that happens we rely on UK adequacy regulations or on the International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum, together with appropriate security measures. You can ask us which safeguards apply to a particular provider.

How long we keep it

• Anti-money laundering and client due diligence records: five years after our relationship ends, as required by law.
• Client files, filings and statutory records: six years after the end of the engagement.
• Enquiries that do not become engagements: twelve months, then deleted.
• Cookie consent records: twelve months from the date of your choice.

Your rights

You have the right to ask for a copy of the personal information we hold, to have it corrected, to have it erased where we are not required to keep it, to restrict or object to how we use it, to receive it in a portable format, and to withdraw consent where we rely on it. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything done beforehand.

We respond to requests within one month. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, though we would appreciate the chance to put it right first.

Cookies

Our use of cookies is set out in the cookie policy. You can change your choice at any time using cookie preferences.

Changes to this policy

We update this policy when our services or the law change. The date at the top of the page shows when it was last revised, and material changes will be highlighted on the site.