Privacy Policy
Last updated:
Best Practice respects your privacy and is committed to handling personal information responsibly and transparently.
This Privacy Policy explains how personal information is collected and used when you visit or interact with the Best Practice website, newsletter, directory and related services.
1. Who we are
The Website is operated by George Hannah trading as Best Practice (“Best Practice”, “we”, “us” or “our”).
For the purposes of UK data protection law, George Hannah trading as Best Practice is the controller of personal information where we determine how and why that information is used.
You can contact us at:
Email: george@georgehannah.com
2. Personal information we may collect
The personal information we collect depends on how you interact with Best Practice.
Information you provide to us
This may include:
your name;
email address;
organisation or job title;
information contained in enquiries or messages you send us;
information submitted through correction, feedback or contact forms;
newsletter subscription information;
survey or competition responses, where applicable; and
any other information you choose to provide.
Please avoid submitting confidential, privileged, highly sensitive or unnecessary personal information through general contact or correction forms.
Information collected automatically
When you visit the Website, we or our service providers may collect technical and usage information including:
your IP address;
browser type and version;
device type;
operating system;
approximate location derived from your IP address;
pages viewed;
time spent on pages;
referring websites or traffic sources;
interactions with Website features; and
other technical information relating to your use of the Website.
Some of this information may be collected using cookies and similar technologies.
Publicly available professional information
Best Practice may also process limited professional information about individuals where relevant to editorial content or the Best Practice directory.
This may include names, job titles, professional roles, organisations and other business-related information obtained from publicly available sources such as:
company websites;
press releases;
Companies House;
public professional profiles;
news reports; and
other publicly accessible sources.
We generally use this information only where relevant to reporting, commentary, research or maintaining the directory.
3. How we collect personal information
We collect personal information:
directly from you when you contact us or complete a form;
when you subscribe to or interact with Best Practice content or services;
automatically through your use of the Website;
through analytics and similar technologies;
from service providers that help us operate the Website; and
from publicly available sources where relevant to our editorial or directory activities.
4. How and why we use personal information
UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for using personal information.
Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on consent, legitimate interests, performance of a contract or compliance with a legal obligation.
We use personal information for the following purposes.
Operating and improving the Website
We may use technical and usage information to operate, maintain, secure and improve the Website.
Our lawful basis is generally our legitimate interests in operating an effective and secure website.
Where analytics or other technologies require consent under applicable law, we rely on your consent instead.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use the Website, including which pages are visited, how users arrive at the Website and general usage patterns.
Where consent is required for analytics cookies or similar technologies, Google Analytics will only be activated after you have provided the necessary consent.
You can change or withdraw your cookie choices through the cookie controls made available on the Website.
Google may process information collected through Google Analytics in accordance with its own privacy practices.
Responding to enquiries and corrections
If you contact us or submit a correction, suggestion or other enquiry, we may use your information to:
respond to you;
investigate your request;
verify information;
correct or improve Website content; and
keep appropriate records of the interaction.
Our lawful basis is generally our legitimate interests in communicating with users, responding to enquiries and maintaining accurate and useful content.
Newsletter
Our newsletter is currently provided through Substack.
If you subscribe, information such as your name, email address and subscription details may be processed in connection with managing and delivering the newsletter.
Where we use your personal information ourselves to send newsletters or marketing communications, we generally rely on your consent, or another lawful basis where applicable.
You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time using the unsubscribe link contained in the relevant email.
If you purchase a paid subscription through Substack, information may also be processed as necessary to provide that subscription and administer your relationship with the relevant platform.
Substack also processes information in accordance with its own privacy practices.
Editorial and directory purposes
We may use limited publicly available professional information where reasonably necessary to:
research and prepare articles;
report on companies or individuals;
maintain directory entries;
verify information;
provide commentary or analysis; and
keep Website content accurate and current.
Where applicable, our lawful basis is generally our legitimate interests in publishing information about legal technology, artificial intelligence and the legal sector.
Security and prevention of misuse
We may use technical and other information to protect the Website, investigate misuse, prevent fraud, identify security incidents and enforce our Terms of Use.
Our lawful basis is generally our legitimate interests in protecting Best Practice, our Website and our users and, where applicable, compliance with a legal obligation.
Legal and regulatory purposes
We may process information where necessary to:
comply with applicable laws;
respond to lawful requests from authorities;
establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
comply with legal, tax, accounting or regulatory requirements.
Our lawful basis will normally be compliance with a legal obligation or our legitimate interests in protecting our legal rights.
5. Cookies and similar technologies
The Website may use cookies and similar technologies to:
provide essential Website functionality;
remember choices and preferences;
understand Website performance and usage; and
support third-party content or services.
Some technologies are essential for the Website to function and may not require consent.
Where consent is legally required, non-essential technologies will not be used until you have made the relevant choice.
You can change your choices through the cookie controls available on the Website.
Third-party or embedded services may also use cookies or receive technical information when you interact with them.
6. Third-party services and service providers
We use third parties to help us operate and provide Best Practice.
These may include providers of:
website hosting and infrastructure;
website forms;
analytics;
email and newsletter services;
security;
data storage;
podcast and video hosting; and
other technical services.
These providers may process personal information as necessary to provide their services.
We may also disclose personal information:
where required by law;
to professional advisers where reasonably necessary;
to protect our legal rights or security; or
in connection with a sale, transfer or restructuring of all or part of Best Practice or its activities.
We do not sell your personal information to third parties.
7. Third-party websites and embedded content
The Website may contain links to, or content provided through, third-party services such as YouTube, Spotify, Google and Substack.
If you follow a third-party link or interact with embedded content, that provider may collect information about you.
Those organisations operate under their own privacy policies and may act as separate controllers of your personal information.
Best Practice is not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites or services.
We recommend reviewing the relevant provider's privacy information before providing personal information to them.
8. Data security
We take reasonable and appropriate measures to protect personal information against accidental or unlawful loss, misuse, alteration, disclosure or unauthorised access.
Access to personal information is limited where reasonably appropriate to those people and service providers who need it for legitimate purposes.
However, no website, electronic transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
If a personal data breach occurs, we will take appropriate action and notify affected individuals and the Information Commissioner's Office where required by law.
9. How long we keep personal information
We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.
The appropriate retention period will depend on factors including:
the nature of the information;
why we hold it;
whether we still need it;
any legal, tax or accounting requirements;
the risk associated with retaining it; and
whether it may be necessary to establish or defend legal claims.
For example:
enquiry and correction correspondence may be kept for a reasonable period after the matter has been dealt with;
newsletter information may generally be retained while you remain subscribed and for an appropriate period afterwards where necessary to maintain suppression or administrative records;
analytics information is retained in accordance with our analytics settings and the relevant provider's practices; and
information required for legal, accounting or tax purposes may be kept for longer where required.
Where appropriate, information may instead be anonymised so that it can no longer identify you.
10. Your data protection rights
Depending on the circumstances and the lawful basis on which we use your information, you may have the right to:
access personal information we hold about you;
correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information;
request deletion of your personal information in certain circumstances;
restrict how we use your personal information in certain circumstances;
object to certain uses of your personal information, including processing based on legitimate interests;
object to direct marketing at any time;
receive or transfer certain personal information in a portable format where the right to data portability applies; and
withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent.
Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.
These rights are not absolute and may not apply in every circumstance.
You can exercise your rights by contacting george@georgehannah.com.
We may need to ask for reasonable information to verify your identity before dealing with a request.
You will not normally be required to pay a fee to exercise your data protection rights.
11. Children
The Website is not specifically directed at children and we do not knowingly seek to collect personal information from children.
If you believe that a child has provided personal information to us in circumstances where this is inappropriate, please contact us.
12. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, including where our Website, services, technology or legal obligations change.
The current version will be published on this page together with the date on which it was last updated.
13. Contact
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, want to exercise a data protection right or want to make a data protection complaint, please contact:
George Hannah trading as Best Practice
Email: george@georgehannah.com