Hambledon Staircases Privacy Policy

From May 2018 new rules come into force which affect how businesses use data and how they communicate this use to their customers. Below is an audit of the information that we collect and our privacy notice which explains why the data is needed, who accesses it and how it is stored. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this.

Data Audit and Data Protection Policy May 2018

Data Audit

We collect the following data directly from customers; names, telephone numbers, address, email address. Customers opt in by giving us this information.

We use Google Analytics to analyse website traffic and popularity. We use names.co.uk to host our website. These organisations collect data about cookies and IP addresses.

Hambledon Staircases is a sole trader (N.Gater), information is also accessed by I.Gater who is not an official employee but is handling data on behalf of Hambledon Staircases. We do not share any data at all with any individual or company outside of Hambledon Staircases with the exception of our accountant, web host and Google Analytics.

In the event that the business is sold or integrated with another business, your details will be disclosed to our advisers and any prospective purchaser’s adviser and will be passed to the new owners of the business.

Data is used to contact customers regarding their design visits, quotes, work schedule and invoices. We do not have a mailing list and do not contact customers about general offers or promotions by email. We do publish information and photographs on Facebook and Instagram but these are accessed only by individuals who have chosen to ‘follow’ our account. Customers are never identified personally and personal data never used in these posts.

When customers choose to leave reviews for us which include their name, these are still used in public social media and website posts.

Data collected by Google Analytics is used only to track website traffic. Data collected by names.co.uk is not used directly by Hambledon Staircases.

Data Protection Policy (effective from 25th May 2018) / Privacy Notice

Hambledon Staircases (“We”, “us”, “our”) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This describes how we use and process any which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us.

We comply with data protection legislation such as Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act), for this purpose the data controller is Nicholas Gater trading as Hambledon Staircases.

Information We May Collect From You

You do not have to give us any personal information in order to use most of this website.

You may provide information to us by filling in the contact form on our site hambledonstaircases.co.uk, via our social media platforms, in person or over the phone. Information requested at these times includes: names, telephone numbers, addresses, email addresses. You are not obliged to provide any or all of this information.

If you do provide information to us via any of the above, we will contact you about the products or services you have requested information about.

We also use Google Analytics to review website performance. This gives us data about the number of individuals that have visited, the devices used to access our website and the general location (city and country) and those that visit. We use this to check that our website is being accessed successfully and is attracting customers within our service area

IP Addresses And Cookies

We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration. Cookies are used to facilitate your visit as you navigate different pages on a website or return to the website at a later time. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.

Our website uses cookies. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. They help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service. They enable us:

To use Google Analytics. Google Analytics cookies collect standard Internet log information and visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including IP address) is transmitted to Google. This information is then used to evaluate visitor’s use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity for the website owner.
To estimate our audience size and usage pattern.
To store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise our site according to your individual interests.
To recognise you when you return to our site.
We will never (and will not allow any third party to) use the statistical analytics tool to track or to collect any Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of visitors to our site. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. Neither we, namesco nor Google will link, or seek to link, an IP address with the identity of a computer user. We will not associate any data gathered from this site with any Personally Identifiable Information from any source, unless you explicitly submit that information via a fill-in form on our website.

You may choose to accept or decline cookies using the controls in your web browser. Most web browsers automatically default to accept them, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you reject cookies by changing your browser settings then be aware that this may disable some of the functionality on our website.

Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you vist our website.

Where We Store Your Personal Data

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

All information you provide to us is stored on a database which is only accessed by N.Gater and I.Gater. This access allows us to fulfil your order and requests. IP address and cookie data is also stored by our webhost, namesco and by Google Analytics.

The transmission of any information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures to try to prevent unauthorised access. If we are ever aware that a breach has been made, any customer that might be affected would be contacted within 72 hours.

Uses Made Of The Information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

To contact you about products or services that you have expressed an interest in (we will only contact you in response to your initial contact or completion of the contact form).
To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for the device you use to access it.
To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes.
To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.

Your Rights

You have the right to ask us what data we have about you and also the right to be forgotten (for us to remove data we have about you).

If at any point, you would like to opt-out of receiving communications from us, or would like to change the channels that we use to contact you, please email us, stating your preferences, at imogen@hambledonstaircases.co.uk