At a glance
- We collect only what we need to reply, deliver our services and improve our website.
- We never sell your personal information.
- Marketing emails only with your consent — unsubscribe any time.
- Analytics and marketing cookies only with your consent.
- Trusted providers (e.g. CRM, hosting, Google) process data on our behalf, with safeguards.
- You can access, correct or delete your data — email [email protected].
1Who we are
This privacy policy explains how AY Experts ("AY Experts", "we", "us", "our") collects, uses and protects personal information when you visit ayexperts.com, contact us, request a proposal, audit or call, subscribe to our emails, or use our services.
For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, AY Experts is the data controller of the personal information described in this policy, except where we act as a processor for agency partners (see section 11).
- Company
- AY Experts Ltd
- Registered in
- England & Wales, company no. 00000000
- Address
- 4 Bertha Rd, Rochdale OL16 5BE, United Kingdom
- ICO registration
- ZA000000
- Privacy contact
- [email protected]
2The information we collect
We only collect the information we need. Depending on how you interact with us, this may include:
Information you give us
- Enquiry, proposal and audit forms: your name, email address, phone number, company name, website address, the services you're interested in, budget range, target areas and any message you send.
- Call bookings: your name, contact details, the date and time you choose, and any notes about what you'd like to discuss.
- Newsletter: your email address and your subscription preferences.
- Phone, WhatsApp and email: the content of your messages and your contact details.
- Clients and partners: contact details of your team, billing information, and access details to accounts we manage for you (for example Google Ads, Analytics, your website or social media).
Information we collect automatically
- Website usage: pages visited, time on site, referring website, device and browser type, approximate location (city level) and IP address — collected through cookies and similar technologies, subject to your consent where required. See Cookies below.
- Campaign data: how you arrived at our site (for example UTM parameters from an ad or email), so we can understand which marketing works.
Information from third parties
We may receive business contact information from agency partners, referral partners, and public sources such as your company website, LinkedIn or Companies House, where this is relevant to a business relationship.
We do not intentionally collect special category data (such as health, religion or ethnicity). Please don't include it in forms or messages.
3How we use your information and our lawful bases
Under UK GDPR we must have a lawful basis for each use of your personal information. Here's what we do and why:
| What we use it for | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Replying to your enquiry, preparing a proposal, free audit or booked call | Steps at your request before entering into a contract; legitimate interests |
| Delivering our services and managing your account | Performance of a contract |
| Invoicing, accounting and tax records | Legal obligation; performance of a contract |
| Sending our newsletter and marketing emails | Consent (you can withdraw at any time); for existing clients, legitimate interests under the PECR "soft opt-in" |
| Analytics and improving our website | Consent (non-essential cookies) |
| Measuring our advertising (e.g. Google Ads, Meta) | Consent (marketing cookies) |
| Keeping our website and forms secure, preventing spam and fraud | Legitimate interests |
| Following up with business contacts about relevant services | Legitimate interests (you can object at any time) |
| Complying with law, regulators and legal claims | Legal obligation; legitimate interests |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have balanced our interests against your rights and freedoms. You can ask us for details of that assessment.
4Marketing communications
We'll only send you marketing emails if you've opted in, or if you're an existing client and we're telling you about similar services (and you haven't opted out). Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and you can also email [email protected] to stop all marketing at any time.
Unsubscribing from marketing won't affect service messages we need to send you, such as reports, invoices or replies to your questions.
6International transfers
Some of our team members and service providers are based outside the UK, which means your information may be accessed from or stored in other countries. Whenever this happens, we make sure it is protected by an appropriate safeguard, such as:
- transfers to countries the UK has confirmed provide adequate protection (UK "adequacy regulations"), or
- the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with any additional measures needed.
You can contact us for more information about the safeguards we use.
7How long we keep your information
We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the purposes above:
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that don't become clients | Up to 24 months after our last contact |
| Client and contract records | 6 years after the end of our contract (UK limitation and tax rules) |
| Invoices and financial records | 6 years from the end of the financial year they relate to |
| Newsletter subscribers | Until you unsubscribe; we then keep a suppression record so we don't email you again |
| Analytics data | Up to 14 months in Google Analytics |
| Call recordings (if any, with notice) | Up to 90 days |
8How we protect your information
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to keep your information safe, including encrypted connections (HTTPS), two-factor authentication on our business systems, access limited to the people who need it, secure password management, regular software updates and spam protection on our forms.
No system is completely secure, but if a personal data breach ever affects you, we'll tell you and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) where the law requires us to.
9Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- Access — ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Rectification — ask us to correct information that's wrong or incomplete.
- Erasure — ask us to delete your information in certain circumstances.
- Restriction — ask us to limit how we use your information.
- Data portability — ask for information you gave us in a reusable format.
- Objection — object to our use of your information based on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time.
- Withdraw consent — where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
- Automated decisions — we don't make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.
To use any of these rights, email [email protected]. We'll respond within one month (this can be extended in some cases, and we'll tell you if so). There's normally no charge. We may need to confirm your identity first.
11White-label and agency partners
When we deliver white-label services for an agency, the agency is usually the controller of its clients' personal information and AY Experts acts as a processor on the agency's instructions. In that case, the agency's own privacy policy applies to its clients, and our obligations are set out in a data processing agreement with the agency.
We keep agency partners' client information confidential, only use it to deliver the agreed services, and never contact their clients directly unless asked to.
12Children
Our website and services are aimed at businesses and are not intended for children under 16. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children.
13Links to other websites
Our website contains links to other sites, such as Google, Upwork and social networks. We're not responsible for their privacy practices, so please read their privacy policies.
14Complaints
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please contact us first at [email protected] — we'll do our best to put things right.
You also have the right to complain to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO):
- Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Helpline: 0303 123 1113
- Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
15Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time, for example when we start using a new service provider or the law changes. The "last updated" date at the top shows when it was last changed. If we make significant changes, we'll let clients and subscribers know by email.
16Contact us
If you have any questions about this policy or how we use your information, contact us:
- [email protected]
- Phone
- +44 7476 930739
- Post
- Data Protection, AY Experts, 4 Bertha Rd, Rochdale OL16 5BE