The IT Dept Website Privacy Policy
1. What does this Privacy Policy cover?
This privacy policy is for the website www.theitdept.co.uk governs the privacy of those users who choose to use that website.
The policy sets out the different areas where user privacy is concerned and outlines the obligations and responsibilities of the users, the website and the website owners. Furthermore, the way this website processes, stores and protects user data and information is also detailed within this policy.
We will not sell, rent or otherwise distribute or make public any of your personal information.
2. The Website
This website complies with all relevant EU and UK national laws and requirements for user privacy. This website collects personal information only where the user of the website has completed and submitted our Contact Form. Such personal information is not shared with any other organisations or third parties.
2.1 Site visitation tracking
Like most websites, this site uses Google Analytics (GA) to track user interaction.
Although GA records data such as your geographical location, type of device, internet browser and operating system; none of this information personally identifies you to us.
GA may also record your computer’s IP address, which could be used to personally identify you but we do not have access to this data which is collected by Google.
Google is a third-party data processor. GA makes use of cookies, details of which can be found on Google’s developer guides.
Disabling cookies on your internet browser will stop GA from tracking any part of your visit to our website.
2.2 Contact & Communication
Users contacting this website and/or its owners do so at their own discretion and provide any such personal details requested at their own risk. Your personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time when it is no longer required or has no use, as detailed in the Data Protection Act 1998 (and any subsequent updates to that legislation).
This website and its owners use any information submitted by you to provide you with further information about the products / services they offer or to assist you in answering any questions or queries you may have submitted. This includes using your details to subscribe you to our email newsletter, but only if this was made clear to you and your express permission was granted when submitting the Contact Form. Or whereby you the consumer have previously purchased from or enquired about purchasing from the company a product or service. Your details are not passed on to any third parties.
2.3 Contact forms and email links
Should you choose to contact us using the Contact Form on our Contact Us page or an email link, the data that you supply will not be stored by this website. The data will be collated into an email and sent to us over the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
2.4 Email Newsletter
If you choose to receive our email newsletter, the email address that you submit to us will be forwarded to MailChimp who provide us with email marketing services. MailChimp are a third-party data processor. The email address that you submit will not be stored within this website’s own database or in any of our internal computer systems. MailChimp’s terms of use can be found here – https://mailchimp.com/legal/terms/
Your email address will remain within MailChimp’s database for as long as we continue to use MailChimp’s services for email marketing or until you specifically request removal from the list. You can do this by unsubscribing using the links contained in any email newsletters that we send you, or by requesting removal via email. When requesting removal via email, please send your email to us using the email account that is subscribed to the mailing list.
If you are under 16 years of age you MUST obtain parental consent before joining our email newsletter.
While your email address remains within the MailChimp database, you will receive periodic newsletter-style emails from us.
3. Use of Cookies
This website uses cookies to enhance the user’s experience while visiting the website. Where applicable this website uses a cookie control system allowing the user on their first visit to the website to allow or disallow the use of cookies on their computer / device. This complies with recent legislation requirements for websites to obtain explicit consent from users before leaving behind or reading files such as cookies on a user’s computer / device.
Cookies are small files saved to the user’s computer’s hard drive that track, save and store information about the user’s interactions and usage of the website. This allows the website, through its servers, to provide the users with a tailored experience within this website. Users are advised that if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their computers hard drive they should take necessary steps within their web browsers security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors.
This website uses tracking software to monitor its visitors to better understand how they use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor usage. The software will save a cookie to your computer’s hard drive to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but will not store, save or collect personal information. You can read Google’s privacy policy here for further information – https://policies.google.com/privacy
Other cookies may be stored to your computer’s hard drive by external vendors when this website uses referral programs, sponsored links or adverts. Such cookies are used for conversion and referral tracking and typically expire after 30 days, though some may take longer. No personal information is stored, saved or collected.
4. 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 with them using due care and caution regarding their own privacy and personal details. Neither this website nor its owners will ever ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms. We encourage users wishing to discuss sensitive details to contact us through primary communication channels such as by 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 through your social media platform account.
4.1 Shortened Links in Social Media
This website and its owners through their social media platform accounts may share web links to relevant web pages. By default, some social media platforms shorten lengthy URLs [web addresses].
Users are advised to take caution and good judgement before clicking any shortened URLs published on social media platforms by this website and its owners. Despite the best efforts to ensure only genuine URLs are published many social media platforms are prone to spam and hacking and therefore this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any shortened links.
5. Relevant Legislation
Along with our business and internal computer systems, this website is designed to comply with the following national and international legislation with regards to data protection and user privacy:
- UK Data Protection Act 1988
- EU Data Protection Directive 1995
- EU General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR)
5.1 Data Breaches
We will report any unlawful data breach of this website’s database or the database(s) of any of our third-party data processors to all relevant persons and authorities within 72 hours of the breach if it is apparent that personal data stored in an identifiable manner has been stolen.
5.2 Data Controller
The data controller of this website is: Matthew Schofield of The IT Dept
5.3 Changes to the Privacy Policy
This privacy policy may change from time to time in line with legislation or industry developments.
We will not explicitly inform our clients or website users of these changes.
We recommend that you check this page occasionally for any policy changes.
