Privacy and cookies notice

Introduction

Equal Experts (“EE”, “us” or “we”) is the data controller in relation to the processing of your personal data  in compliance with our obligations under the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and is registered as such with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

EE is committed to protecting the privacy of our clients. This privacy notice is intended to set out the basis upon which any personal data or information we collect from you, or that you provide to us, may be collected and processed by (or on behalf of) EE.

It applies to use of our website, our professional services as a management consultancy business (“Service’”) or during any communications with you.

How we collect your personal data

Personal data is any information about an individual from which you can be identified. It does not include data where it is not possible to identify you (such as anonymised data).

Your personal data generally comes from the way you engage with us, for example, when you::

  • User our Services, attend meetings with us and/or make telephone calls to us;
  • Correspond with us by email, in which case we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses;
  • Sign up to receive marketing communication from us or to attend an event;
  • Supply us with your personal information as part of the recruitment (e.g. sending us your resume) or supplier engagement process;
  • Use our website, during which other personal data may be collected, such as your IP address (please see section on cookies, below).

We also collect personal data about you from a variety of other sources such as third party marketing agencies, other people we meet or provide our Services to, who refer you, Google and social media, including LinkedIn. This includes publicly available sources, including public databases such as Companies House (where permitted by law).

What we collect

The categories of information that we may collect directly from you include:

  •  Contact details e.g. name, email address, postal address, telephone number, the name of the company you work at
  • Any other information you provide to us in the course of our communications with you
  • Information about your knowledge, skills and experience
  • Recordings of calls you make to us
  • Device information e.g. IP address

The categories of information that we may collect from other sources include:

  • Contact details e.g. name, work e-mail address, work postal address, work telephone number, the name of the company you work at
  • Information about your knowledge, skills and experience

Sensitive information

‘Sensitive (Special category)’ personal data includes information about racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

We will not collect sensitive (special category) personal information from visitors to our website, our clients or our employees, except where you have explicitly provided it (e.g. a CV).

How we use your personal information and the basis on which we use it

We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

Subject Matter Purpose/Activity Lawful basis for processing
Operating our Services We process your personal information to provide the services you have requested. This is so we can comply with our agreements with to you.
Communicating with you We may use your personal information when we communicate with you, for example, responding to a query or e-mail you have sent us or update you about changes to our policies. We may also record your name and e-mail if you have asked not to be contacted, so we don’t do so. It is in our legitimate interest that we are able to provide you with appropriate and personalised response, including when not to contact you.
Marketing We may use your personal information to send you marketing emails, telephone calls, and social media to promote us, our Services, share news, events and other content. Where you receive such marketing communications, it is on the basis of our legitimate interests including growing our business and Services, informing you of promotions about us and our Services and to invite you to our events. You may opt out at anytime by withdrawing your consent, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

When you receive such marketing communications to your personal contact details, this is on the basis of your consent and you may opt out at any time by withdrawing your consent, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
Recruitment We may use your personal information to process your resume as part of a job application that you may make to us. It is in our legitimate interest to recruit new employees to join our team and where we have a legal obligation to do so.
Preventing fraud We may use your personal information such as device information to protect, investigate, and deter against fraudulent, unauthorised, or illegal activity. It is our legitimate interest to protect our business and where we have a legal obligation to do so.
Improving our Services We analyse information about how you use our Services to provide an improved experience for the users of all our Services. We may use your data to enable client feedback and improve the overall quality of our service delivery, including through client satisfaction surveys and project management. It is in our legitimate interest to conduct research and analytics in relation to the running of our Services so we can understand any issues with our Services and improve them.

 

Retention

As described in this policy, personal information will be retained by us and will not be sold, transferred or otherwise disclosed to any third party, other than for the purpose of lawful processing. Personal information may be anonymised / pseudonymised for the purpose of research to inform our marketing and development strategies or where such disclosure is required by law or court order.

We may retain your personal data for many reasons and criteria such as where required by law; for our business purposes; to investigate or defend against potential legal claims; the prevention, detection and prosecution of crime or other legal issues; and to help prevent fraudulent activity and other reasons as defined in our retention policy. We only retain personal data for as long as it is required.

If your personal information changes or you no longer wish to receive a particular communication from us please let us know and we will correct, update or remove your details. This can be done by emailing privacy@equalexperts.com

Security

In providing services to you, we may process personal data as a controller or on your behalf as a data processor. Where we act as processor on your behalf we will only process personal data for the purposes outlined above or otherwise in accordance with your instructions, and only keep it for as long as it is needed for that purpose.

We use up-to-date data storage and security controls to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorised modification or unlawful destruction or accidental loss. All our employees and any third parties we engage to process your personal information are obliged to respect the confidentiality of your information.

How and when we share your personal information to third parties and internationally

We may share your personal information to our subsidiary companies which operate in 7 countries for the activities and purposes as listed in the table above.

Such subsidiary companies include:

  • Equal Experts India Private Ltd based in Pune, India
  • Equal Experts Germany Gmbh based in Berlin, Germany
  • Equal Experts BV based in Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Equal Experts Portugal Lda based in Lisbon, Portugal
  • Equal Experts (SA) Pty Ltd based in Cape Town, South Africa
  • Equal Experts BV based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • Equal Experts Australia Pty Ltd based in Sydney, Australia
  • Equal Experts Inc based in New York, USA

These countries that our subsidiaries operate in may have data protection rules that are different from your country. When transferring data across borders, we take measures to comply with applicable data protection laws related to such transfer. In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal information in response to lawful requests from officials (such as law enforcement or security authorities).

We will use your personal information solely for the purpose for which it was provided and share it with EE staff and consultants on a ‘need to know’ basis.

We may share your personal data with third parties under the following circumstances:

  • We share your personal data with our service providers and business partners. These third parties belong to the following categories:
    • Companies that help us provide our Services, such as consultants.
    • Professional service providers, such as messaging services, telephony providers, IT software providers, client relationship management system, marketing and research agencies, profile and behavioural analytics companies and websites.
    • Credit reference agencies, law enforcement and fraud prevention agencies, so we can help tackle fraud.
    • Governmental bodies and regulators to comply with our legal obligations.
  • We may share your personal data with law enforcement agencies, courts, government authorities or other third parties where we believe it is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, or otherwise to protect our rights or the rights of a third party.
  • We may share your personal data with potential partners, service providers, advisors, and other third parties in connection with the consideration, negotiation, or completion of a corporate transaction in which we are acquired by or merged with another company or we sell or transfer all or a portion of our assets or business. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to obligate the entity to which we transfer your personal data to use it in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy.

We use cloud based applications and providers for information storage. Data is by preference stored in the EU, but may be transferred for hosting/storage to the United States. We only use suppliers who implement the same level of security controls (or stronger) as we do ourselves.

Where applicable law requires a data transfer mechanism, we use one or more of the following safeguards to transfer personal data internationally:

  • Transfers to certain countries or recipients that are recognised as having an adequate level of protection for personal data under applicable law;
  • EU Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office – copies of which can be found at commission.europa.eu and ico.org.uk respectively; or
  • Other legal methods available to us under applicable law.

We will not sell your information to a third party.

Cookies

Like most providers of online services, EE uses cookies to provide, and improve our Website, including by remembering your preferences and recognizing you when you visit our website. To accomplish these purposes, EE also may link information from cookies with other personal information EE holds about you.

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Cookies Cookies used
www.equalexperts.com OptanonConsent,
OptanonAlertBoxClosed		 1st Party
hubspot.com __cfduid 1st Party

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.

Cookie Subgroup Cookies Cookies used
equalexperts.com _ga,
hubspotutk,
__hssrc,
_gid,
__hstc,
__hssc		 1st Party

Targeting Cookies

These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Cookie Subgroup Cookies Cookies used
youtube.com GPS, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, YSC 3rd Party
doubleclick.net test_cookie, IDE 3rd Party
ads.linkedin.com lang 3rd Party
www.linkedin.com bscookie 3rd Party
linkedin.com lidc, lang, lissc, bcookie, UserMatchHistory 3rd Party
soundcloud.com sc_anonymous_id 3rd Party

How can you control cookies?

Browser and device controls. Some web browsers provide settings that allow you to control or reject cookies or to alert you when a cookie is placed on your computer. The procedure for managing cookies is slightly different for each internet browser. You can check the specific steps in your particular browser help menu. You also may be able to reset device identifiers by activating the appropriate setting on your mobile device. The procedure for managing device identifiers is slightly different for each device. You can check the specific steps in the help or settings menu of your particular device.

What happens if I disable all cookies?

The changes you make to your cookie preferences may make browsing our Website a less satisfying experience. In some cases, you may even find yourself unable to use all or part of our Website.

More information

To find out more about how cookies work, how to manage and delete them and to see which ones have been set please visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Your rights

Under the GDPR, you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information we hold about you.

In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we:

  • inform you about the collection and use of your personal data (as described in this Privacy Policy);
  • provide you with a copy of any personal data which we hold about you;
  • update any of your personal data which is out of date, incorrect or incomplete;
  • delete any of your personal data which we hold about you if it is no longer necessary for us to hold it for the purposes if was originally obtained or, in some instances, where you have withdrawn your consent or objected to the processing of it;
  • restrict the way that we process your personal data;
  • move, copy or transfer your personal data to a third party (i.e. data portability);
  • consider any valid objections which you have in relation to our use of your personal data (where we are relying on our legitimate interests as the basis for the processing); and
  • stop processing your personal data, if you decide to withdraw consent, where such processing is based on you having given consent to such processing.

For further information, please visit ico.org.uk.

If at any time you wish to exercise your rights as a data subject in relation to information we hold about you as an individual please contact us by email to privacy@equalexperts.com or by mail to the address above.

Complaints or queries

EE tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage you to bring it to our attention if you think that our collection or use of your information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate.

This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind but we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below.

If you want to make a complaint about the way we have processed your personal information please do so by email to privacy@equalexperts.com. If you are not satisfied with the response we give you then you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office, which is the statutory body which oversees data protection law in the UK.

If we change our privacy policies and procedures, we will post those changes on our website or otherwise notify you to keep you aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it.

Data Controller Details

We are the data controller in relation to the processing of the personal data that you provide to us and responsible for such personal data. If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact us by email at privacy@equalexperts.com

This Privacy and Cookies Notice was last reviewed on 26 February 2025