Privacy Notice

The information we collect depends on your relationship with us and the nature of the enquiry or investigation.
Clients and People Making Enquiries
We may collect:
your name;
email address;
telephone number, where provided;
preferred method of contact;
information contained in your enquiry;
details of what you would like to establish;
information about your relationship to the matter;
information and documents you choose to provide;
correspondence between you and James Rae Investigations;
information required to assess whether an instruction can appropriately be accepted;
agreed investigation scope and instructions;
invoicing and payment information; and
other information reasonably necessary to provide or administer our services.
Please avoid providing personal information that is not relevant or reasonably necessary to your enquiry.

Investigation Subjects and Other Individuals
During legitimate investigative or analytical work, we may identify or process information including:
names;
usernames, aliases and online identifiers;
publicly available social-media information;
publicly available photographs or images;
websites and webpages;
digital footprints and online activity;
publicly available professional or employment information;
business and company information;
directorships and other publicly recorded business relationships;
publicly available contact or location information where relevant;
online relationships or associations where reasonably and lawfully identified;
news and media information;
archived online material;
information contained in public registers and other public sources;
information lawfully supplied by a client; and
other publicly available or lawfully accessible information relevant to the agreed investigative purpose.
We aim to collect and use information that is relevant, necessary and proportionate to the legitimate purpose of an investigation rather than collecting information simply because it is available.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, please contact James Rae at james@jamesraeinvestigations.co.uk.

We may process personal information to:
receive and respond to enquiries;
assess whether an investigation should be accepted;
establish whether there is a legitimate purpose for proposed investigative work;
communicate with clients and prospective clients;
prepare quotations and agree investigation scopes;
enter into and perform contracts for investigative services;
undertake agreed investigations, research and analysis;
conduct lawful open-source intelligence research;
identify, verify and cross-reference relevant information;
investigate online identities and digital footprints;
undertake lawful people-tracing enquiries;
conduct background and due-diligence research;
analyse communications, documents and digital information supplied to us;
identify timelines, patterns, relationships, associations and inconsistencies;
prepare reports, assessments, chronologies and other agreed deliverables;
maintain appropriate case and business records;
administer invoices and payments;
maintain the security and integrity of our website and systems;
prevent or respond to misuse of our services;
handle complaints;
comply with applicable legal and regulatory obligations; and
establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Data-protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for processing personal information. The appropriate basis depends on the circumstances.

Contract
We may process information where it is necessary:
to take steps at your request before entering into a contract; or
to perform a contract for investigative services with you.
For example, we may need to process your contact details, instructions and information about your enquiry to assess and provide the service you have requested.

Legitimate Interests
We may process personal information where this is necessary for legitimate interests pursued by James Rae Investigations, a client or another person, provided those interests are not overridden by the rights and freedoms of the individual concerned.
Depending on the circumstances, legitimate interests may include:
establishing or verifying relevant facts;
conducting legitimate and proportionate investigative research;
investigating potentially misleading or false online identities;
locating individuals for legitimate purposes;
undertaking appropriate background research or due diligence;
protecting legitimate personal, legal or commercial interests;
analysing information relevant to a legitimate dispute or concern;
preventing misuse of our services;
maintaining the security and effective operation of our business; and
establishing, exercise or defend legal claims.

Legitimate interests are not treated as an automatic justification for an investigation. Where appropriate, we consider the purpose of the processing, whether using the information is necessary and whether the individual's interests, rights and freedoms override the identified legitimate interest.
We may decline or restrict an investigation where we consider that the proposed processing would be inappropriate, unnecessary, disproportionate or unlawful.
The ICO requires organisations relying on legitimate interests to consider the purpose, necessity and balancing tests and to explain the legitimate interests involved.

Legal Obligation
We may process personal information where necessary to comply with a legal obligation that applies to us.

Consent
We may rely on consent where this is the appropriate lawful basis for a particular activity. Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn.
We do not rely on consent merely because information about an investigation subject is publicly available.