The Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) requires us to have an authorised Law Firm “digital badge” to verify that we are SRA authorised. This is a controversial requirement concerning privacy and data issues where a complaint had been made to the Information Commissioner’s Office. As the badge is hosted by a third party, like a number of other firms we embed it on its own page but accessible across our site. We have explained the concerns below and why we therefore suggest you only view the badge if you are willing to send your personal information to third parties. Here is the third party’s privacy notice.
The concerns
The “digital badge” was an idea intended to help that we are a genuine law firm. However, when providing the badge we also have to embed content from a third party site. The issues arise when the badge is accessed include:
- the IP address of anyone who loads the badge on visiting our site gets sent to the third party.
- this increases the risk that, if the third party should be compromised, infection of their system could find its way back to clients or visitors of a law firm website.
- the current process includes a tracking tool, Google Analytics, which should be used only with your consent but that is not obtained through this mandatory badge system.
- there is no sufficient data processing or control agreement between us and Google or the badge provider.
- we cannot control what a third party might do with information received.
If despite such concerns, you may of course still view the badge here.