Our Privacy Policy aims to help you understand what information we might collect about you and how we use it.

UK Business Buddy is the data controller of your personal data.

UK Business Buddy is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and will comply with all applicable data protection laws in all our dealings with your personal data.

We may collect and process the following data about you:

• Information about you, such as your name, your business name, telephone number and email address;
• Additional information that is provided by you filling in forms on our websites or at exhibitions/events, say. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our site, subscribing to our services, posting material, or requesting further services or information;
• If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence;
• We may also ask you to complete surveys from time to time that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them;
• Details of transactions you carry out through our site and of the fulfilment of your orders;
• Details of your visits to our websites and emails received including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, web logs and other communication data, whether this is required for our own billing purposes or otherwise.

IP addresses

We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to prevent fraudulent access to our member-only areas.

Use of Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies (herein referred to in general as “cookies”) for a variety of purposes on our websites or when we send you an email.

Cookies are small files that are stored on your browser when you visit a website. The main purpose is to keep a record of your visit, time spent on the site, pages visited and searches made. We may also use cookies to automatically collect information from your computer when you visit our sites, and automatically store it in the log files. This may include information on type of browser software, website activity and IP address.

The main purposes of the cookies we use are:

• Session – to allow the user to navigate our sites more easily; for example you don’t have to login in as a new user every time.
• Analytics – to improve the user experience of the site by providing statistics on how the site is used.
• Tracking – we may use cookies hosted by third parties which allow for an improved site experience by collecting data such as browser, IP address, pages visited, content viewed, timing of visits etc. When you visit our websites or open an email we have sent, we or one of our third party partners may place a cookie on your browser.
• Authentication – this enables us to identify you and therefore where appropriate, personalise information for you.

How to refuse and delete cookies

You can refuse to accept all or some cookies by modifying settings within your browser – for help on how to do this visit www.aboutcookies.org.uk

You may also delete all cookies on your browser – click help on your browser or visit www.aboutcookies.org.uk

Please remember that if you block the session cookies you may be unable to access certain parts of our websites.

Where we store your personal data

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area (“EEA”). We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that any personal data transferred outside the UK or the EEA is treated securely and in accordance with the applicable data protection laws.

We will store all information about you on secure servers.

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of 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 and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Legal basis to process your personal data

Under the applicable data protection laws (GDPR) we need a lawful basis to collect and use your personal data. The law allows for six lawful basis to process people’s personal data, and one of them allows personal data to be legally collected and used if it is necessary for a legitimate interest of the organisation – as long as it is fair and balanced and does not unduly impact the rights of individuals.

We have assessed our business interests in carrying out marketing activities and we have carefully considered the impact the collection and use of personal data could potentially have on individuals’ rights.

Our databases contain data which is used for internal means and such activities are unlikely to affect the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals concerned. We have therefore concluded that the most appropriate lawful ground for the processing of your personal data is our legitimate interests.

In the event you request any goods and/or services from us, we will rely on our contractual relationship to process your personal data to provide such goods and/or services to you.

In certain circumstances we may also rely on a specific consent provided by you for the processing of your personal data.

You have the right to object to this processing if you wish and if you do so we will remove your data from all our systems and cease all communication with you. If you wish to make that happen just send an email to: hello@ukbusinessbuddy.com

Uses made of your information

We process personal information for certain legitimate business purposes, which include some or all of the following:

• To update our records;
• To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;
• To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
• To notify you about any changes to our service;
• To identify and prevent fraud;
• To enhance the security of our network and information systems;
• To better understand how people interact with our websites;
• To communicate with you about offers, products, services and other information that we believe may be helpful to you and your business;
• To determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and marketing;
• To enhance, modify, personalise or otherwise improve our services/communications for the benefit of you and our customers.

Whenever we process data we will ensure that we always keep your personal data rights in high regard and take full account of these rights.

When contacting you for the above purposes we may do so by phone, post, email or other electronic means, unless you tell us otherwise.

None of your personal details will ever be passed to any third parties or shared with companies or people outside of Uk Business Buddyand our associated businesses.

Data Retention
We will only retain your personal data for as long as we believe it is up-to-date. We verify our data periodically and if we learn that you are no longer involved with a business that is in our database, we will remove your data from our records.

If you want us to remove your data from our records then we will do so. All you have to do is ask. You can do so by sending an email to: hello@ukbusinessbuddy.com

Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Request to see the personal data we hold about you. This includes the right to obtain confirmation as to whether or not we process any of your personal data. There may be a charge to provide this as set out under applicable law;
• Request that we correct any inaccuracies in the personal data that we hold on you;
• If you wish you can request to have your personally identifiable data deleted from our database and/or to stop receiving communications from us;
• Request that we do not process your personal data for marketing purposes;
• Object to our processing of your personal data if we are relying on legitimate interest as the lawful ground for processing;

If you wish to talk to us about any of the above please drop us an email at hello@ukbusinessbuddy.com

If you have any concerns or complaints about our activities, you can contact us on hello@ukbusinessbuddy.com or you can call 0800 0461804 during normal office hours.

External Links

Although this website only aims to include quality, safe and relevant external links, users are advised adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external web links mentioned throughout this site.

Uk Business Buddy cannot and does not guarantee or verify the contents of any externally linked website. You therefore click on external links at your own risk and Uk Business Buddy cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links on this Site.

Social Media Platforms

Communication, engagement and actions taken through external social media platforms that this website and its owners participate on are custom to the terms and conditions as well as the privacy policies held with each social media platform respectively.

Users are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate/engage upon them with due care and caution in regard to their own privacy and personal details. Uk Business Buddy will never ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms and we encourage users wishing to discuss sensitive details to contact us through our primary communication channels i.e telephone or email.

This website may use social sharing buttons which help share web content directly from web pages to the social media platform in question. Users are advised before using such social sharing buttons that they do so at their own discretion and note that the social media platform may track and save your request to share a web page respectively through your social media platform account.

Third Parties

Service providers who provide IT and/or administrative services such as Melu who provide assistance by way of a managed live chat service for website enquiries on our website. A copy of Melu’s own privacy policy can be accessed here.