Your Data Protection Rights

Added August 2021

Under the data protection legislation, you are given a number of rights with regard to how and when FSB may process your Personal Data.

These rights apply to any processing of your personal data by National Federation of Self Employed and Small Businesses Limited (FSB) or our subsidiary companies,

  • FSB (Member Services) Limited, company number 02875304,
  • FSB Publications Limited, company number 01222258,
  • FSB Recruitment Limited, company number 07836252,

all of which are registered at Sir Frank Whittle Way, Blackpool Business Park, Blackpool  FY4 2FE.

You should read and understand these rights in conjunction with FSB’s Privacy Policies contained within our Privacy Hub which set out the reasons why FSB collect and process your personal data according to the relationship(s) you hold with us.

Please be aware that some services provided under the FSB brand are delivered by contracted partners and as such, FSB may not hold data about your specific relationship with those partners and may be unable to complete a rights request for this reason.  You may however still make your request via FSB, and we will forward such requests to the relevant partners and inform you when we do this.

How do I exercise my rights?

You can make your request to anyone at FSB or by email at [email protected], or by post to the following address;

 FAO Data Privacy Team
 National Federation of Self Employed and Small Businesses Limited (FSB)
 Sir Frank Whittle Way
 Blackpool
 FY4 2FE

Do I have to pay a fee?

You do not have to pay any fee to exercise your rights over the personal information that we hold and process.

FSB are however allowed to charge a reasonable fee if;

  • your request is manifestly unfounded, where it appears you have no clear intention to access the information or your request is malicious in intent and the request to harass FSB with no real purposes other than to cause that disruption. 
  • your request is repetitive, where we have already given you the information you request and you want a further copy, or your requests for date based, information are made for consecutive periods rather than as a single wider range.
  • your request is excessive, where you have already made a request and submit a further request or repeats the substance of previous requests where a reasonable interval of time has not passed.

If we are to charge a fee to action your request, we will inform you why this is and detail the amount and how that amount is calculated.  You may of course complain to the Information Commissioners Office if you feel this is unlawful, but we would ask you to discuss this with us first by following the How to Complain section below.

How long will it take?

When you make any request, FSB will endeavour to action that request as expediently as possible.

The law requires that we respond in full to your request “without undue delay”, and “within no more than one calendar month”. 

If your request is excessive, or our resources are significantly overburdened we are lawfully allowed to extend this by up to two further calendar months, but we will ensure to tell you if and why we need to do this.

Please note, these time limits commence from the point that;

  • We are satisfied that you have the authority to make the request yourself, or appropriate authority from another party to act on their behalf,
  • We have verified your identity, and if necessary, the identity of the party whom you act on behalf of, and
  • Any feed that is due is paid.

In the event that the deadline to respond falls within a weekend or statutory holiday, we must respond to you by the last working day before that date.

The right to be informed

It is your explicit right to be told in clear and simple language, what we do when we do anything with your Personal Data.  To comply with this right, FSB will provide you where possible with a clear Privacy Notice on our forms and data collection activities, and in any event, shall publish within our Privacy Hub, all relevant transparency information to allow you to make informed choices about our processing of your Personal Data.

The right of access

You have the right to request FSB provide you with access to a copy of the personal data we hold about you, along with all the purposes we use it for and the transparency information we share publicly via our Privacy Hub about those purposes.

The right to rectification

Where you believe that information we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may request that we correct or complete it.  We must comply with this request unless we reasonably believe that the information we hold is accurate, in which case we will inform you of this and remind you of your right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office if you still consider the information to be inaccurate or incomplete.

The right to erasure

You may at any time request that we delete or remove your Personal Data where you consider that there is no lawful reason for us continuing to process it, or where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing.  FSB may refuse to comply with your request of erasure where we have specific legal reasons for retaining that information and where this is the case, we will notify you of our reasons for this and remind you of your right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office if you are unhappy with this decision.

The right to object

Where FSB rely upon our own Legitimate Interests, or the Legitimate Interest of others, or you have a reason to object to FSB processing your personal data for some specific purpose that impacts negatively on your fundamental rights and freedoms, you may lodge an objection to that processing.

FSB may refuse to comply with such a request where we have a valid legal reason to continue that processing, such as a legal obligation and where this is the case, we will explain our decision to you and remind you of your right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office if you still consider your objection to be valid.

Where a Right to Object request is successful, you have a right to request we erase this information (See The Right to Erasure).

You also have the explicit right to object to the processing of your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes.

The right to restrict processing

This right allows you the ability to ask FSB to suspend processing of your Personal Data where:

  • You want us to establish your data’s accuracy,
  • Our use of the data is unlawful, but you do not wish us to erase it,
  • You need us to hold the data, even where we no longer require it, as you need it to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim,
  • You have objected to our use of your data, but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

The right to data portability

Similar to your Right of Access, you may request FSB to provide a copy of your Personal Data to you, or directly to a third party, in a format that is structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, for your own personal use or transfer to that other provider.

Most service provided by FSB are maintained by our contracted third parties and should you wish to exercise this right, you may make the request via FSB however the service provider may request further validation to exercise the request.

Please note, this right is limited to only information which you have provided directly to FSB and is applicable only where it is technically possible to provide that data to you in that structured format.

Where FSB are unable to comply with such a request, we will inform you of the reasons for this and remind you of your right to complain to the Information Commissioners Office if you remain unhappy with this decision.

The right to not be subject to automated processing or decision making

This right enables you to request a human intervention where any automated decision making is taken about you by solely by automated means where those decisions may have a legal or similarly significant effect upon you.

FSB do not undertake any automated processing or decision making that can have such a legal or material effect upon you without making such decisions clear and providing you the opportunity to challenge such decisions.

Where such a decision is made, we will make it clear to you and provide you at that point, the necessary information to exercise this right.

How to Complain

Regretfully there may be a time when you are unhappy with something we have done, or are doing with your data, or a decision we have made. 

FSB take your privacy and rights very seriously and if you are unhappy, we genuinely want to work with you to put things right.

In the first instance, please give us the opportunity to address your concerns by contacting our Contact Centre by calling us at 0808 20 20 888 or emailing [email protected] .

We will always try and do everything we possibly can to address your concerns, but should you remain dissatisfied, you may escalate your complaint to our complaints team by emailing [email protected].

If you still remain dissatisfied, you of course still have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at any time or seek a judicial remedy.  Full contact details and how to raise a complaint with the ICO are found on their website at www.ico.org.uk.