Customer Privacy Notice

Customer Privacy Notice

This privacy notice tells you what to expect us to do with your personal information.

Contact details

Telephone: 03301 334170
Email: paulw@covecommunications.co.uk

What information we collect and use, and why

We may collect or use the following information to provide and improve products and services for clients:

  • Names and contact details
  • Addresses
  • Pronoun preferences
  • Occupation
  • Financial data (including income and expenditure)
  • Transaction data (including details about payments to and from you and details of products and services you have purchased)
  • Usage data (including information about how you interact with and use our website, products and services)
  • Credit history and credit reference information
  • Information relating to compliments or complaints
  • Records of meetings and decisions
  • Website user information

We collect or use the following personal information for the operation of client or customer accounts:

  • Names and contact details
  • Addresses
  • Purchase or service history

We may collect or use the following personal information for information updates or marketing purposes:

  • Names and contact details
  • Addresses
  • Profile information
  • Marketing preferences
  • Purchase or account history

We may collect or use the following personal information for research or archiving purposes:

  • Names and contact details
  • Addresses
  • Purchase or client account history

We may collect or use the following personal information to comply with legal requirements:

  • Name
  • Contact information
  • Client account information
  • Any other personal information required to comply with legal obligations

We may collect or use the following personal information for recruitment purposes:

  • Contact details (eg name, address, telephone number or personal email address)
  • Date of birth
  • National Insurance number
  • Copies of passports or other photo ID
  • Employment history (eg job application, employment references or secondary employment)
  • Education history (eg qualifications)
  • Right to work information
  • Details of any criminal convictions (eg Disclosure Barring Service (DBS), Access NI or Disclosure Scotland checks )
  • Security clearance details (eg basic checks and higher security clearance)

We may collect or use the following personal information for dealing with queries, complaints or claims:

  • Names and contact details
  • Account information
  • Purchase or service history
  • Customer or client accounts and records
  • Financial transaction information
  • Correspondence

Lawful bases and data protection rights

Under UK data protection law, we must have a “lawful basis” for collecting and using your personal information. There is a list of possible lawful bases in the UK GDPR. You can find out more about lawful bases on the ICO’s website.

Which lawful basis we rely on may affect your data protection rights which are in brief set out below. You can find out more about your data protection rights and the exemptions which may apply on the ICO’s website:

  • Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. You can request other information such as details about where we get personal information from and who we share personal information with. There are some exemptions which means you may not receive all the information you ask for.
  • Your right to rectification– You have the right to ask us to correct or delete personal information you think is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • Your right to erasure– You have the right to ask us to delete your personal information.
  • Your right to restriction of processing– You have the right to ask us to limit how we can use your personal information.
  • Your right to object to processing– You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data.
  • Your right to data portability– You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you.
  • Your right to withdraw consent– When we use consent as our lawful basis you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

If you make a request, we must respond to you without undue delay and in any event within one month.

To make a data protection rights request, please contact us using the contact details at the top of this privacy notice.

Our lawful bases for the collection and use of your data

Our lawful bases for collecting or using personal information to provide and improve products and services for clients are:

  • Consent – we have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you do have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Contract – we have to collect or use the information so we can enter into or carry out a contract with you. All of your data protection rights may apply except the right to object.
  • Legitimate interests – we’re collecting or using your information because it benefits you, our organisation or someone else, without causing an undue risk of harm to anyone. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to portability. Our legitimate interests are:
    • Legitimate interest may include for example collecting and using information about journalists to whom we might supply material on behalf of a client, to gain coverage for that client as part of a contracted work programme. Journalists expect their information to be used for such purposes.

Our lawful bases for collecting or using personal information for the operation of client or customer accounts are:

  • Consent – we have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you do have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Contract – we have to collect or use the information so we can enter into or carry out a contract with you. All of your data protection rights may apply except the right to object.
  • Legitimate interests – we’re collecting or using your information because it benefits you, our organisation or someone else, without causing an undue risk of harm to anyone. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to portability. Our legitimate interests are:
    • Legitimate interest may include for example collecting and using contact details (name, role, email address) for local government officials who would be likely to benefit from knowing about outputs or successes from a client\’s work programme. This would be used to help the client communicate these outputs, as part of our work for the client.

Our lawful bases for collecting or using personal information for information updates or marketing purposes are:

  • Consent – we have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you do have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Legitimate interests – we’re collecting or using your information because it benefits you, our organisation or someone else, without causing an undue risk of harm to anyone. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to portability. Our legitimate interests are:
    • Legitimate interest would include for example collecting and using personal information on relevant people within businesses or public sector organisations (e.g. procurement, marketing or management staff) who would potentially be interested in our work or could become customers for our services to help achieve their objectives.

Our lawful bases for collecting or using personal information for research or archiving purposes:

  • Consent – we have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you do have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Contract – we have to collect or use the information so we can enter into or carry out a contract with you. All of your data protection rights may apply except the right to object.
  • Legitimate interests – we’re collecting or using your information because it benefits you, our organisation or someone else, without causing an undue risk of harm to anyone. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to portability. Our legitimate interests are:
    • Legitimate interest may include collecting the names and contact details of people who are experts in fields relevant to our work, so that we can keep abreast of developments and provide best advice to clients.

Our lawful bases for collecting or using personal information to comply with legal requirements:

  • Consent – we have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you do have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Contract – we have to collect or use the information so we can enter into or carry out a contract with you. All of your data protection rights may apply except the right to object.
  • Legal obligation – we have to collect or use your information so we can comply with the law. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to erasure, the right to object and the right to data portability.

Our lawful bases for collecting or using personal information for recruitment purposes are:

  • Consent – we have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you do have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Contract – we have to collect or use the information so we can enter into or carry out a contract with you. All of your data protection rights may apply except the right to object.
  • Legitimate interests – we’re collecting or using your information because it benefits you, our organisation or someone else, without causing an undue risk of harm to anyone. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to portability. Our legitimate interests are:
    • Collecting and using contact information on potential employees and subcontractors is of benefit to them in case we need to engage their services.

Our lawful bases for collecting or using personal information for dealing with queries, complaints or claims are:

  • Consent – we have permission from you after we gave you all the relevant information. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to object. To be clear, you do have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Contract – we have to collect or use the information so we can enter into or carry out a contract with you. All of your data protection rights may apply except the right to object.
  • Legal obligation – we have to collect or use your information so we can comply with the law. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to erasure, the right to object and the right to data portability.
  • Legitimate interests – we’re collecting or using your information because it benefits you, our organisation or someone else, without causing an undue risk of harm to anyone. All of your data protection rights may apply, except the right to portability. Our legitimate interests are:
    • A legitimate interest is maintaining records of conversations and correspondence with clients, or clients\’ third party contacts if appropriate within our work scope, so that a query, complaint or claim can be dealt with effectively and accurately.

Where we get personal information from

  • Directly from you
  • Regulatory authorities
  • Publicly available sources
  • Previous employment
  • Market research organisations
  • Providers of marketing lists and other personal information
  • Suppliers and service providers

How long we keep information

 The following is Cove Communications UK Ltd’s retention schedule for major categories of personal data.
Data subject Example data type/description (non-exhaustive) Trigger event Retention period Rationale for retention period
Employees Name, address, contact details, gender, tax and NI references, CVs, correspondence, next of kin information End of employment 5 years (10 years in the case of financial records) To answer queries, including queries from statutory authorities
Potential employees and applicants Name, address, gender, contact information, professional accreditations, CVs,  correspondence End of recruitment process 3 years For potential recruitment
Subcontractors (whether individuals or personnel from subcontracted companies) Name, address, contact details, records of interactions, employer, billing information, correspondence End of contractual arrangement 5 years (10 years in the case of financial records) To answer queries, including queries from statutory authorities
Potential subcontractors (whether individuals or personnel from subcontracted companies) Name, address, contact details, employer, correspondence End of tendering or quotation process 3 years For purposes of seeking quotations for supplies and services
Individuals whose details have been collected and processed as part of work programmes for clients Name, role, organisation, contact details, gender, correspondence, other relevant information such as membership of professional bodies and professional interest groups, attendance at events etc End of client work programme As requested by client, reverting to 3 years as the default. To enable audit trails of client work

 

Who we share information with

Where necessary in the course of our work we may share information with

  • Our clients
  • Professional or legal advisors
  • Organisations we’re legally obliged to share personal information with
  • Suppliers and service providers
  • Professional consultants

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal data, you can make a complaint to us using the contact details at the top of this privacy notice.

If you remain unhappy with how we’ve used your data after raising a complaint with us, you can also complain to the ICO.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

Website: https://www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

Last updated

1 April 2025