Privacy Policy

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Charles Francis & Associates Surveying Ltd is responsible for and committed to protecting your data. Our registered address is 129 Woodplumpton Road, Fulwood, Preston, Lancashire, PR2 3LF.

Charles Francis & Associates Surveying Ltd respects the privacy of our customers and visitors to our website. With the new changes to UK privacy laws, The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a positive step towards giving you, the customer, full control over how your data is used and how you are contacted. 

In this policy we will advise you how we collect, store and use your data, plus what controls you have over how the data is used. When we talk about sensitive personal data, we mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable living person e.g. 

• Name and job title 
• Company name 
• Contact information including email address 
• Demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests 
• Other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers 

It also includes information on how you may interact with our websites or web applications e.g. 

• IP address 
• Cookies, etc. 

Please read the following policy carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. For the purposes of data protection laws in the UK, the data controller is Charles Francis & Associates Surveying Ltd, meaning we are solely responsible for determining the purpose and means by which the data we hold is processed.  

Lawful basis for processing data 

Your data will be processed under the ‘legitimate interest’ lawful basis (to process personal data for business and commercial purposes). This means we will continue to send marketing communications data based upon existing (or any new) relationships with our customers, but even so, we will not unfairly put our legitimate interests above what is best for you. The new GDPR states, “the processing of personal data for direct marketing purposes may be regarded as carried out for a legitimate interest.” 

• Legitimate Interest is the most flexible, lawful basis for processing data; 
• This is most likely appropriate where data is used in ways that customers may reasonably expect, with minimal privacy impact; 
• Using this as our lawful basis for processing data means Charles Francis & Associates Surveying Ltd are taking on extra responsibility for considering and protecting our customer’s right and interests; 
• This lawful basis sets out to provides a balance of benefits to both Charles Francis & Associates Surveying Ltd and individual customers. 

Why we collect data and what we use it for 

Charles Francis & Associates Surveying Ltd will process personal information for certain legitimate business purposes, which include some or all of the following: 

• Enhance, modify, personalise or otherwise improve our services and marketing communications for the benefits of our customers; 
• To enhance the security of our network and information systems; 
• To better understand how customers/users interact with our website and digital marketing; 
• To provide email communications to existing or new customers we think will be of interest; 
• To determine the effectiveness of promotional campaigns and advertising; 
• To identify and prevent fraudulent activity. 

How long do we keep your data? 

We will keep your data only for as long as we need to. How long we need data depends on what we are using it for, whether that is to provide services to you, for our own legitimate interests (described above) or so that we can comply with the law. 

We will actively review the information we hold and when there is no longer a legitimate interest in us holding the information, we will either delete it securely or in some cases anonymise it. 

Controlling your personal information 

You can opt out of receiving any marketing or communications from us at any time, simply by following the unsubscribe link on any of our email communications. This will automatically opt you out of receiving any further email marketing communications from us about our property services or other relevant information. 

Please note that if you tell us that you do not wish to receive marketing communications emails, you may still receive service emails (for example, those which are necessary to confirm scheduled appointments or to update you on the status of your individual business with us). This is so we can fully meet any contracts we hold with you. 

Should you wish to update or modify the personal information we hold on you, please contact us at any time using the following contact email: admin@cfsurveying.co.uk 

Please note that once you ask us to stop sending marketing emails, we will keep a minimal note of your personal information and your request so that we can provide evidence that we are securely keeping a copy of this information, by law under the new GDPR rules. 

Who has access to this information? 

Your details will be kept within the Charles Francis & Associates Surveying Ltd organisation until such time as you ask for them to be removed or we decide that, in absence of any response, they should be removed. Your details will not be sold or otherwise disposed of to any third party except where we are legally obliged to do so or where we believe that such action will protect the interests of Charles Francis & Associates Surveying Ltd and/or the security of our staff. 

How secure are your details? 

When you register your details with us, we will take all reasonable steps to keep these details secure and free from unauthorised access. 

Sharing information with third parties 

Third party service providers 

As required in accordance with how we use data, we will share your personal information with the third-parties that perform services for us, on our behalf, which may include providing email communication services, web platform services, digital marketing services, data analytics services, payment processing, web hosting, auditing and other similar services. Third parties are subject to confidentiality obligations and may only use personal data to perform the necessary functions and not for other purposes. 

Third party affiliates 

We may share some data with our affiliates, in which case they must comply with this privacy policy. 

Third party websites 

Our website may also contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and these sites are not governed by this privacy policy. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy policy applicable to the website in question. 

How we use cookies 

Here we set out the foundations of how Charles Francis & Associates Surveying Ltd uses cookies and similar technologies on our website: https://cfsurveying.co.uk 

What are cookies? 

A cookie is a small piece of data sent to a user’s web browser when they visit a website. It is used by the website to store useful information about the visitor, such as user preferences, and whether the user is logged in or not. 

Some examples of how we use these cookies are: 

• To collect information about which web pages visitors go to most often so we can improve the online experience; 
• Error management to make sure that the website is working properly; 
• Testing designs to help improve the look and feel of the website. 

Types of cookies and how we use them on our site

Strictly necessary cookies 

Required for the operation of our website. 

Analytical/performance cookies 

Allow us to recognise you and count the number of visitors and how they move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works. 

Functionality cookies 

These are cookies designed to enhance a website’s functionality. They are not essential for the website or its functionality and we do not currently use them on https://cfsurveying.co.uk 

Using first party Google Analytics cookies allows us to see how customers engage and interact with our website, including data on how users first come to our website, which pages they have visited (and for how long) and what links they clicked and route they navigate, and their location (based on their IP address). Data collected by Google Analytics cookies is always anonymised and aggregated. 

You can view information on Google’s Privacy Policy and how it uses cookies data here: https://policies.google.com/privacy 

How to accept or reject cookies 

We use cookies to ensure that we give visitors to our website the best experience possible. If you continue using the website without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on this website. However, if you would like to, you can change your cookie settings at any time. 

To clear cookies that have previously been placed on your browser, you should select the option to ‘clear browsing history’ and ensure that the option to delete and/or clear cookies is included. 

At any time, you can accept or reject cookies (e.g. blocking all third-party cookies) simply by adjusting your browser settings. If you do not know how to do this, the links below set out information about how to change your browser settings for some of the most commonly used web browsers: 

• Manage cookies in Google Chrome 
• Manage cookies in Mozilla Firefox 
• Manage cookies in Microsoft Edge 
• Manage cookies in Apple Safari 

Some web browsers (Chrome and Firefox) do allow users to change settings and browse in ‘incognito’ mode. This limits the amount of data placed on personal machines and automatically deletes any persistent cookies placed on devices once the user has finished their browsing session. 

Google Analytics Opt-out 

You can opt-out of making your site activity available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Browser Add-On: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout 

The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) that is running on websites from sharing information with Google Analytics about customer visit activity.  However, using the Google Analytics Opt-Out browser add-on will not prevent Charles Francis & Associates Surveying Ltd from using other tools to measure our website analytics. 

How to access, review, transfer and delete your personal data 

Any personal data can be made available to you for review, pursuant to a simple request (please send request to admin@cfsurveying.co.uk). 

To tell us that the personal data we hold on you is incorrect, please contact us. Once we receive the information we will correct, update or delete as appropriate. You also have the ability to request ‘Right to Erasure’ of all personal data, restrict processing and to object to processing, as well as the right to data portability. 

What is data portability? 

The right to data portability allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services. It allows them to move, copy or transfer personal data easily from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way, without affecting its usability. 

If you have any enquiries about this Privacy Policy, please contact: admin@cfsurveying.co.uk