PQE Privacy Policy

Last Update: 1 August 2024

General Introduction

PQE (also ‘we,’ ‘us’) is a digital legal career support service that equips you with data and guidance to help you make the most of your career.

To provide you with a personalised legal career support service we require some personal information from you, defined in this Policy as ‘Personal Data’.

As a small business, we will use our reasonable endeavours to ensure that your Personal Data is held and handled securely by us.

Please bear any limitations in this Privacy Policy in mind. If you have any concerns or questions, please contact us at [email protected] or write to us at 49 Lanchester Road N6 4SX. We are committed to the reasonableness of this Policy and are open to making reasonable amendments.

Introduction to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy (‘Policy’) provides you with information about who we are, how we process your Personal Data, and for what purposes, and tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

By using our PQE App (‘App’), you agree to the collection and use of your Personal Data in accordance with this Policy.

You will be asked to indicate your consent to our processing of your Personal Data before registering for the App. Please indicate your preferences by using the tick boxes at the end of this policy.

You may change your mind and withdraw consent at any time by contacting us at [email protected] but that will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent.

If you find this policy unreasonable or have any suggestions for improvements, then please contact us at [email protected] or write to us at 49 Lanchester Road N6 4SX. We are open to making reasonable amendments to this Policy.

Why do we use your Personal Data?

In addition to the purposes set out above, we will use your Personal Data for all lawful and reasonable purposes, including without limitation, the following:

To ensure security: To monitor and analyse usage to detect and prevent fraud and other harmful activities.
To personalise your user experience: To tailor content and recommendations to your interests and preferences.
To facilitate job opportunities: To alert you about job opportunities that match your profile and preferences.
To provide you with advisory services: To provide a list of coaches, mentors, and mental health professionals to facilitate initial communication.
To communicate with you: To send you updates, notifications, and other information related to your account and our Services.
To provide and improve our Services: To collect feedback to operate, maintain, and enhance the App and Services.
To conduct surveys and research: To gather insights through surveys, like our Self-assessments and Benchmarking Services, and use the information for research and development.
To market our Services: To promote new and additional features, offers, and other aspects of the Service, or partner services, through newsletters, messages, advertising, and targeted advertising.

We will only use your Personal Data when the law allows us to do so. Read more about our legal basis for collecting, using, and sharing your Personal Data in Section 3 below.

What Personal Data do we collect and how?

To provide you with a personalised legal career support service, most of the Personal Data we collect about you will be information given directly by you when you register and use our App. We will also collect information about you throughout your usage and participation in our Services.

Personal Data given directly by you

We may collect, use, store, and transfer different kinds of Personal Data given directly by you when you register or use our App. This data may include:

Identity Data
Contact Data
Financial Data
Transaction Data
Content Data
Profile Data
Onboarding Data
Message Data

By filling in forms on the App or elsewhere in relation to our Services, or by corresponding with us, you consent to giving us this Personal Data about yourself. This includes Personal Data you provide when you download the App, register to use the App, or subscribe to any of our Services.

Personal Data given by your usage

We may automatically collect Personal Data about you throughout your usage of the App and when you participate in our Services. For example, when you participate in surveys such as our self-assessments and benchmarking services; our advisory channels, such as Ask PQE (our AI Service) and Coaches and Mentors introductory service; our Jobs service, or our newsletter and notification channels. We collect this Personal Data using Cookies and other similar technologies.

The Personal Data we may collect about how you access and use the App may include:

Usage Data
IP address data
Log data
Location Data (if you consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time)
Device Data

Self-assessments and Benchmarking Services and other surveys

Self-assessments and Benchmarking Services enable you to evaluate where you stand professionally compared to typical employer expectations and your peers’ level in general. When you undertake a self-assessment and benchmarking activity, we will record and anonymise the information you provide. We will use your responses to produce anonymous statistics that will be shared on our website.

If we conduct other surveys, we will similarly record and anonymise the information you provide and use your responses to produce anonymous statistics that will be shared on our website.

You are not obligated to participate in these services or surveys, and you have choices about the information you choose to provide. Privacy notices may appear before you take certain privacy-intrusive steps, such as submitting a benchmarking survey, to check that you consent to our use of your Personal Data.

Ask PQE

Ask PQE, our AI “Career Mentor”, enables you to get personalised guidance on a wide range of career issues. We will collect information related to those interactions, including archiving your messaging history (visible at the side of your correspondence). We will take a ‘zero knowledge’ approach to these interactions by encrypting them and securely storing them. As the Data Controller, we may use third-party Data Processors to help us process and secure your data.

Please note that Ask PQE is only a tool to personalise our Services to improve your User experience. This AI is not a trained legal expert nor a professional “Career Mentor.”

Coaches and Mentors

Our lists of coaches, mentors, and mental health professionals are designed to provide you with a simple list of people that may be of interest to you, in discussing your career with another person. If you interact with any of these individuals, we may collect information related to those interactions, including messages and feedback. We reserve the right to collect and record the initial questions posed and may create an archive of anonymised answers to useful questions you have asked, so other members of the PQE community can benefit from the same responses and/or advice.

Please note, we take no money from the individuals listed and are not in a position to vet them, and do not hold them out as in any way the right choice for you. We also do not know your circumstances and you need to do your own research to ensure they are qualified to assist you.

If you volunteer to act as a free mentor to help others with their career journey we will publish to the app any Personal Data you give us to put on your profile, including your biographical and career history and picture. We may collect information related to any interactions with other members, including messages and feedback. We reserve the right to collect and record the initial questions posed and may create an archive of anonymised answers to useful questions you have supplied, so other members of the PQE community can benefit from the same responses and/or advice.

Jobs service

Our job service helps you to find advertised jobs that are relevant to you. To personalise the list you will need to provide a minimum set of basic Personal Data, such as the type of role and level you are interested in. You can also add more details, such as location and organisation type. You can create email job alerts so that you are notified of the latest relevant roles and choose to receive these daily or weekly. You can edit, delete or unsubscribe from these at any time.

Newsletters

When you sign up for a newsletter, we will use your email address to send you relevant career advice, jobs, and service information newsletters.

Cookies

We use Cookies and other tracking technologies to distinguish you from other Users of the App or Services to remember your preferences. This helps us to provide you with a personalised experience when you use the App, and also allows us to improve the App and other Services. For detailed information on the Cookies we use, the purposes for which we use them, and how you can exercise your choices regarding our use of your Cookies, please see our Cookie Policy.

Our Legal Basis

We have a lawful basis to collect, use, and share Personal Data about you. There are several legal reasons why we are allowed to process your Personal Data. These include:

Your consent: You have choices about our use of your Personal Data. At any time, you can withdraw the consent you have provided by going to settings and opting out (see: How to control your Personal Data?)
Contractual obligations: When processing your Personal Data is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
Legal obligations: We may need to share your Personal Data when we believe it is required by law or to help protect the rights and safety of you, us, or others.
Legitimate interests: To pursue our legitimate interests, or those of a third-party, and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. For example, our legitimate interests are to enable us to properly administer the App, and our Services, and to improve and grow our business.
Marketing: We will only send you direct marketing communications by email if we have your consent. You have the right to withdraw that consent at any time by contacting us at [email protected].

If you find anything in this policy unreasonable or have any questions, then please contact us at [email protected] or write to us at 49 Lanchester Road N6 4SX.

Who do we share your Personal Data with?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer your Personal Data to outside parties without your consent, except in the following circumstances:

Service Providers: We may share your Personal Data with third-party service providers who help us operate and maintain the App and deliver our Services. We may also share your Personal Data with our Service Providers and other third parties (“Affiliated Parties”) that provide services for or through the App or for our business. These providers may include without limitation: authentication third parties (e.g. Auth0), host companies, communication providers, email service providers, analytics companies, payment processing companies, and others.
Legal Requirements: We may disclose your Personal Data when we believe it is required by law or to help protect the rights and safety of you, us, or others.
Business Transfers: We may share your Personal Data in the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our business or assets. Your Personal Data may be transferred as part of the transaction. We may share your data in a business transfer, but it must continue to be used in accordance with this Policy.

Aggregated Statistics and Anonymised Data: We reserve the right to anonymise, aggregate, and/or otherwise de-identify your Personal Data and subsequently use and/or disclose such Personal Data for the purpose of research, improving our Services, or for another business purpose authorized by applicable law, such as selling on your anonymised Personal Data to third-parties with a legitimate interest, e.g., to firms for analytical purposes or aggregated statistics regarding user behaviour as a measure of interest in and use of our Services.

We will not share unanonymised Personal Data collected from Self-assessments and Benchmarking, nor job specifications or searches, nor any correspondence with coaches, mentors, or mental health professionals. However, we may provide your organisation with an anonymised and/or aggregated data analysis of your interaction with our Services.

Note, that although we will reasonably endeavour to anonymise and de-identify your Personal Data, there remains a risk that your Personal Data may be identifiable. Please see our TERMS OF USE POLICY for further details.

External links

On the App we may provide links to external websites where you can learn more about practices or job opportunities. Please note that these external websites and any services that may be accessible through them are outside of our control and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these external websites. Clicking on those links may allow third parties to collect or share Personal Data about you. Your information will be used by them according to their privacy policy which is independent of our own.

How long do we keep your Personal Data?

When we collect or process your Personal Data, we will only keep it for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including to satisfy any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. At the end of that retention period, your data will be deleted or anonymised.

If you are a PQE member we will retain your Personal Data for the duration of your membership and for up to 6 years after you stop being a member with us.

Please be aware that we may keep some of your anonymised data, even after you close your account. By law, we must keep basic information about our Users for 6 years after they cease being users of the App for tax purposes. In some circumstances, you can ask us to delete your Personal Data.

Your Rights

Under certain circumstances, you have the following rights under data protection laws regarding your Personal Data:

The right to access: The right to request access to and a copy of your Personal Data. This is called a Data Subject Access Request, or SAR.
The right to restrict processing: You can ask us to pause processing your Personal Data in certain circumstances (e.g., you don’t think it is correct).
The right to rectification: You can have any inaccuracies in your Personal Data corrected.
The right to erasure: You can ask us to erase all your Personal Data in certain circumstances.
The right to object to processing: You can object to us processing your Personal Data in certain circumstances.
The right to data portability: You can ask us to transfer your Personal Data electronically to you or another organisation in certain circumstances.
The right to withdraw consent: Where we rely on your consent to process your Personal Data, you can withdraw consent at any time. Note this will not affect our use(s) of your Personal Data before you withdrew your consent.
The right to complain: If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your Personal Data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email). We would be grateful if you contact us beforehand if you have a complaint so that we can attempt to resolve it for you.

For more information, visit For the public | ICO.

Please be aware that you are under no obligation to provide us with your Personal Data. However, in some instances, if you do not provide certain information then we may not be able to provide you with certain Services, or otherwise interact with you.

If you would like to exercise any of the above rights, please contact us at [email protected] or write to us at 49 Lanchester Road N6 4SX. All of these rights are free to exercise. We will do our best to respond to you within 2-10 business days to inform you we have received your request and will reasonably endeavour to resolve your request.

How to control your Personal Data?

We understand that it is important for you to have clear control and choice over how your Personal Data is collected, used, and shared. Below we have detailed the ways you can control your Personal Data.

Update: Through your profile, you can update your Personal Data through the App settings to make sure your information is accurate and up to date.
Opt-in/ Opt-out: You have the right to “opt-in” and/or “opt-out” of certain of our uses of your Personal Data, such as marketing communications by following the unsubscribe link in our emails to you.
Manage your preferences: For job alerts and other notifications within the App settings, you have control to give or withdraw your consent.
Security: We take reasonable measures to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, use, alteration, and disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. We ask that when you set up an account with our Services, you secure your account by choosing a unique and strong password.
Contact us: For any specific requests or concerns regarding your Personal Data, please contact us directly and we will reasonably endeavour to resolve any inquiries or complaints. Get in touch by emailing us at [email protected], write to us at 49 Lanchester Road N6 4SX, or provide feedback via the App Menu.

Glossary

Personal Data – Information that can be used to identify an individual person, such as a name, phone number, and email address.

Processing – Any operation performed on Personal Data, such as collection, storage, use, and disclosure.

Identity Data – Any information relating to an identifiable natural person (‘data subject’). For example, first name, last name, maiden name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth, and gender.

Contact Data – All data relating to an individual, such as billing address, delivery address, email address, and telephone number.

Financial Data – All data relating to an individual’s finances, such as bank account and payment card details.

Transaction Data – Information captured from transactions, including details about payments to and from an individual and details of in-app purchases.

Content Data – Information stored on an individual’s device, including contact list, login information, photos, videos, or other digital content.

Profile Data – An individual’s username and password, in-app purchase history, interests, preferences, feedback, and survey responses.

Onboarding Data – Data you input on the registration form when creating an account to personalise and improve your experience of the App and our Services. This may include without limitation, your name, email address, organisation, current role, qualification year, location, and start date.

Cookie - A Cookie is a tiny text file placed on your computer, tablet, or mobile phone by websites that you visit. Cookies help make websites work smoothly, provide information about how people browse, and make sure any adverts you see are as relevant as possible.

Usage Data – Information collected automatically about how users interact with the App, including traffic data and other communication data, and the resources that you access.

IP Address - An IP address is a label that is used to identify one or more devices on a computer network, such as the Internet. It can be compared to a postal address.

Log data – The times an individual accessed the app, which pages were viewed, and what app features were used.

Location Data – An individual's current location as disclosed by GPS technology.

Device Data – Data collected from an individual's device, such as the type of mobile device they use, unique device identifier, mobile network information, type of mobile browser they use, time zone setting, and other such information.

Legitimate Interest – The interest of PQE or the interest of third parties (commercial, individual, or broader societal interests/ benefits) that necessarily require processing. Interests may be pursued only when balanced against the user's fundamental rights and freedoms (unless the user's consent is given or is otherwise required or permitted by law).

Data Processor – The entity that processes Personal Data on behalf of the Data Controller.

Data Controller - The entity that determines the purpose and means of processing Personal Data.

Service Providers – Third party companies that assist in operating the App and providing services.

Aggregated Data – Data collected and combined from multiple individual users, combined to create statistical reports to make inferences about users.

Data Subject – An individual whose Personal Data is being collected, held, or processed.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may need to update this Policy from time to time. You can see when this Policy was last updated by checking the date at the top of the page. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Policy on this page and updating the “Last Updated” date. You are advised to review this Policy periodically for any changes.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact us at:

Email: [email protected]
Address: 49 Lanchester Road N6 4SX

Consent to this Privacy Policy

By using the App, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Policy and agreed to its terms.

If you find this policy unreasonable or have any suggestions for improvements, then please contact us at [email protected] or write to us at 49 Lanchester Road N6 4SX.