Privacy & Data Protection
Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how FORD & CO BUILDING ("we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, stores, and protects your personal information when you visit https://fordcobuilding.site, make an enquiry, or engage our domestic construction services in the United Kingdom.
1. Privacy Policy Overview
FORD & CO BUILDING is a professional construction company specialising in domestic buildings and home improvement projects across the United Kingdom. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data fairly, lawfully, and transparently in accordance with applicable UK data protection laws, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
This Privacy Policy sets out how we handle personal information when you use our website, submit a project enquiry, request a quotation, sign up to receive updates, or otherwise interact with us. It explains what data we collect, why we collect it, how long we retain it, who we may share it with, and the rights you have over your information.
For the purposes of UK data protection law, the data controller is:
FORD & CO BUILDING
24 Sandford Road,
Winscombe, North Somerset,
England, BS25 1JA
Phone: +447836690096
Email: [email protected]
2. Information We Collect
We collect personal information that you choose to provide to us, as well as certain technical data generated when you use our website. The categories of data we may collect include:
2.1 Information you provide directly
- Contact details: such as your name, email address, telephone number, and postal address when you submit an enquiry, request a quotation, or contact us via our Contact Us page.
- Project enquiry information: details about your property, location, type of construction or renovation work required, budget, timeframes, and any other information you choose to share to help us understand your requirements.
- Communication records: copies of emails, messages, notes of telephone calls, and other correspondence relating to your enquiry or project.
- Contract and billing information: where relevant, details necessary to prepare quotations, contracts, and invoices for our services.
2.2 Information collected automatically
When you browse our website, we may automatically collect certain technical data to help us understand website performance and usage patterns, such as:
- Device and usage data: including IP address, browser type and version, device type, operating system, and approximate geographic location (based on IP address).
- Log and analytics data: such as pages visited, time spent on pages, referring websites, and other diagnostic information generated through website analytics tools.
- Cookies and similar technologies: small text files placed on your device which help us improve your browsing experience and analyse website traffic. For more details, see section 10 (Cookies and Website Analytics).
2.3 Information from third parties
In some cases, we may receive personal information about you from third parties, for example where you are introduced to us by another professional (such as an architect, surveyor, or estate agent) or where we verify certain details using publicly available sources (such as planning records or property information).
3. How We Use Your Information
We use your personal information only where we have a valid legal reason to do so and always in a way that is consistent with this Privacy Policy. Typical purposes include:
- Responding to enquiries: to acknowledge and respond to your questions, provide initial advice, and discuss potential domestic construction or renovation projects.
- Preparing quotations and proposals: to assess your requirements, conduct site assessments or desktop reviews where appropriate, and prepare tailored quotations or project proposals.
- Managing bookings and projects: to schedule work, coordinate with subcontractors and suppliers, manage project timelines, and keep you informed about progress and next steps.
- Providing customer support: to address any concerns, handle complaints, and ensure a high standard of service during and after project completion.
- Improving our website and services: to monitor website performance, understand how visitors use our site, and enhance our content, navigation, and service offerings.
- Record keeping and administration: to maintain accurate records of enquiries, quotations, contracts, invoices, and communications for our legitimate business needs.
- Legal, regulatory, and insurance purposes: to comply with applicable laws and regulations, respond to lawful requests, exercise or defend legal claims, and meet insurance or health and safety obligations.
- Marketing and updates (limited): to send you relevant updates about our services or completed projects where you have requested such information or where we are otherwise permitted to do so under UK law. You can opt out at any time.
4. Lawful Basis for Processing
Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis to process your personal data. Depending on the context, we will rely on one or more of the following grounds:
- Contractual necessity: where processing is necessary to enter into, or perform, a contract with you. This includes handling enquiries, preparing quotations, managing your project, and providing our building services.
- Legitimate interests: where processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests (or those of a third party), and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. This may include improving our services, maintaining records, securing our website, and preventing fraud or misuse.
- Legal obligation: where we must process your data to comply with a legal or regulatory requirement, such as tax, accounting, health and safety, or construction-related obligations.
- Consent: in limited situations, we may rely on your explicit consent, for example for certain forms of direct marketing or optional cookies. Where we rely on consent, you are free to withdraw it at any time by contacting us or adjusting your cookie settings.
If you have any questions about the lawful basis for our processing in a particular situation, you can contact us using the details in section 11.
5. Data Sharing and Disclosure
We do not sell your personal data and we only share it where necessary, proportionate, and subject to appropriate safeguards. Your information may be shared with:
- Trusted service providers: third parties who provide services to us, such as IT hosting, website analytics, email delivery, document storage, or professional advisers (accountants, legal advisers). These providers are bound by contractual obligations to keep your information confidential and to use it only on our instructions.
- Subcontractors and suppliers: where required to deliver your project, such as specialist trades, structural engineers, or material suppliers. We share only the information that is reasonably necessary to coordinate and complete the works.
- Regulators and authorities: where we are legally required or permitted to do so, for example to comply with building regulations, planning authorities, tax authorities, law enforcement, or health and safety regulators.
- Professional advisers and insurers: where necessary for managing risk, insurance, or legal claims, or obtaining professional advice.
- Business transfers: in the unlikely event of a business sale, merger, or restructuring, your personal data may be transferred as part of that process, in which case we will ensure that appropriate protections are in place.
Whenever we share your personal data with third parties, we take reasonable steps to ensure it is kept secure and used only in accordance with UK data protection law.
6. International Data Transfers
Our core operations and domestic building services are based in the United Kingdom, and we aim to keep your personal data within the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA) wherever possible.
However, some of our trusted service providers (for example, website hosting or analytics providers) may process data in countries outside the UK or EEA. Where this occurs, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place, such as:
- Using countries that the UK Government has deemed to provide an adequate level of data protection; and/or
- Putting in place standard contractual clauses or equivalent legal mechanisms approved under UK data protection law.
If you would like more information about the safeguards used for any specific international transfer of your data, please contact us using the details in section 11.
7. Data Retention
We retain personal data only for as long as is reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and to meet any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, or reporting requirements.
In general:
- Enquiry records: if you contact us but do not proceed with a project, we may retain your enquiry details and related correspondence for up to 12–24 months for reference and to manage follow-up communications.
- Project and contract records: where we carry out work for you, we typically keep contract information, project records, and related financial data for up to six years (or longer where required) after project completion, in line with legal limitation periods and our regulatory obligations.
- Technical and analytics data: information collected via cookies and analytics tools is retained in accordance with our cookie settings and the policies of our analytics providers.
When personal data is no longer required, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so that it can no longer be linked back to you.
8. Your Data Protection Rights
Under UK data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to the personal data we hold about you. These rights are subject to certain conditions and exemptions, but in general include:
- Right of access: to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to receive information about how it is processed.
- Right to rectification: to have inaccurate or incomplete personal data corrected or updated.
- Right to erasure: in certain circumstances, to request that we delete your personal data (also known as the "right to be forgotten").
- Right to restrict processing: to ask us to suspend the processing of your data in certain situations, for example while we verify its accuracy or consider an objection.
- Right to object: to object to our processing of your data where we rely on legitimate interests, including profiling, or to object to direct marketing at any time.
- Right to data portability: in some cases, to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format and to have it transmitted to another controller where technically feasible.
- Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in section 11. We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request. We aim to respond within one month, although this period may be extended for complex or numerous requests.
You also have the right to make a complaint to the UK data protection authority, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Further information is available at www.ico.org.uk. We would, however, appreciate the chance to address your concerns first, so please contact us in the first instance.
9. How We Protect Your Data
We take the security of your personal data seriously and use a combination of technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.
These measures may include:
- Using secure systems and devices for storing project and client records.
- Restricting access to personal data to those employees, subcontractors, and service providers who have a business need to know it.
- Using passwords and, where appropriate, additional security controls for accessing systems that contain personal data.
- Maintaining appropriate backup, recovery, and logging arrangements.
- Providing guidance to relevant personnel on data protection responsibilities and good practice.
While we strive to protect your personal information, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. We therefore cannot guarantee absolute security, but we do take reasonable steps to reduce risks and respond promptly to any suspected data incidents.
11. Contacting Us About Privacy
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, how we handle your personal data, or if you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, you can contact us using the details below:
FORD & CO BUILDING
24 Sandford Road,
Winscombe, North Somerset,
England, BS25 1JA
Phone: +447836690096
Email: [email protected]
If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection, at www.ico.org.uk or by calling their helpline.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in law, our practices, or our services. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. We encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.