Privacy Policy

British Engineers is the service brand used on this website. FocusLens LTD is the data controller for the personal information described in this notice.

For any question about this notice or your information, contact us at info@british-engineers.com or call 0333 344 6656.

When you send an enquiry through our website contact form, you give us:

• your name
• your phone number
• your email address, if you choose to give one
• the service you are asking about, if you choose one
• your message, if you write one

When you submit a site survey request, you may also give us:

• the postcode of the property
• whether the work is for a home, a business or something else
• the kind of project it is and when you would like the work done
• how you would like us to contact you
• details about the job that you choose to give us, which depend on the service you ask about

To handle an enquiry or survey request we also keep:

• operational enquiry details: the enquiry status, notes our team add, a record of calls, messages and emails with you, and a history of system notifications about the enquiry
• technical details: that the enquiry came from the website contact form or survey form, the page it was sent from, a random identifier the form creates so that one submission is not saved twice, and dates and times

If you go on to use our services, we also keep:

• the address of the property where the work takes place, if it differs from your own
• details of the survey, quotation and the installation, repair or maintenance work
• records of our calls, text messages and emails with you about the work
• invoicing and payment records

Our enquiry system does not store your IP address, does not save advertising click identifiers with your enquiry and does not take payment details. Separately, if you allow analytics or marketing cookies, the services described in the next section collect information about your visit.

We use the cookies of these services only if you allow them through the cookie banner. Google Analytics and Google Ads use Google Consent Mode: their tags load on every visit, but until you allow a category they set no cookies and send Google only limited, cookieless information (described below). Hotjar and the Meta Pixel are not loaded at all unless you allow analytics or marketing cookies respectively.

• Google Analytics (analytics cookies): which pages you view, how you arrived at the site, the type of device and browser you use, your approximate location (country or city level, worked out from your IP address) and the actions you take, such as starting an enquiry.
• Hotjar (analytics cookies): how visitors move around a page, such as clicks, scrolling and mouse movement, which may include recordings of a visit, to help us improve the design of the site.
• Google Ads (marketing cookies): whether a visit or enquiry came from one of our Google adverts, so we can measure their results, and to show our adverts to people who have visited the site.
• Meta Pixel (marketing cookies): whether a visit came from one of our Facebook or Instagram adverts, so we can measure their results, and to show our adverts to people who have visited the site.

These services are run through Google Tag Manager. Before you choose, or if you choose “Reject all”, the Google tags still send Google a basic, cookieless signal when a page loads or an enquiry is started: that the event happened, your consent choice, the page address, the type of browser and device, and your IP address (which Google uses to work out an approximate location). These signals do not identify you across visits; Google uses them to estimate overall visit and advert-conversion numbers. If you arrived from one of our Google adverts, the advert's click identifier may be kept in the page address as you move around the site, instead of in a cookie, so that an enquiry can be matched to that advert. Hotjar and Meta receive nothing unless you allow them. Google, Hotjar and Meta may use the information they collect for their own purposes, as described in their own privacy notices.

• to respond to the enquiry or site survey request you sent us
• to follow up about the services you asked about
• to keep an operational record of enquiries
• to manage communications with you about your enquiry or the service
• to protect access to our enquiry system
• to send internal notifications to our team that a new enquiry has arrived
• if you allow analytics cookies, to understand how the website is used and improve it
• if you allow marketing cookies, to measure the results of our advertising and show our adverts to people who have visited the site
• if you become a customer: to arrange and carry out the work, keep you updated, issue invoices, handle questions or complaints after the work, and keep the business, accounting and tax records we must keep

We do not use your enquiry details for marketing emails or advertising audiences, and we do not make automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.

When we install CCTV at your home or business, you decide how the cameras are used and what happens to the recordings, so you are responsible for the footage, for any signs, and for meeting data protection law where your cameras record beyond your own property. We can give general guidance on this when we plan the system.

If we need to see live images or recordings while installing, testing, repairing or servicing your system, we do so only for that work, and we do not keep copies unless you ask us to.

Under UK data protection law we rely on:

• taking steps at your request before entering into a contract, where your enquiry is about work you want us to do
• our legitimate interests in handling business enquiries, keeping operational records and keeping our systems secure
• performance of a contract, once you ask us to carry out work
• legal obligation, where we must keep records for tax, accounting or other legal reasons
• your consent, for analytics and marketing cookies and the services that use them

We do not ask for your consent to handle an ordinary enquiry. You can withdraw your consent to cookies at any time by choosing “Cookie settings” at the bottom of any page.

We do not sell your information, and the details you type into our enquiry and survey forms are not sent to analytics or advertising services. We use service providers to run the website and the enquiry system:

• our website hosting provider, which runs the website and the application that receives your enquiry
• our PostgreSQL database host, where enquiries are stored
• our email service provider, whose mail server delivers the internal notification email that tells our team an enquiry has arrived
• the email providers of the mailboxes that receive that notification
• if you allow them: Google (Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics and Google Ads), Hotjar and Meta (Meta Pixel)
• if you become a customer: engineers or installation partners who carry out part of the work, and suppliers or manufacturers where we need to arrange equipment, warranty or repairs
• our professional advisers, such as accountants, insurers and legal advisers, where needed
• the police, courts, regulators or other authorities, where the law requires it

Everyone we share information with must keep it secure and use it only for the purpose we share it for.

The notification email includes the details you entered, such as your name, phone number, email address, chosen service and message.

The enquiry database is hosted in the UK (London) region. Our email delivery provider, the mailbox providers, and Google, Hotjar and Meta if you allow their cookies, may process information in other countries, including the United States. Where personal information is transferred outside the UK, it is protected by the safeguards that UK data protection law requires, such as UK adequacy regulations (including the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for certified US companies), the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

• Enquiries that do not lead to work, or where we receive no response: 12 months after the last meaningful activity.
• Enquiries that reached the qualified or quoted stage but did not progress: 24 months after the last meaningful activity.
• Customer, work and invoice records for scheduled or completed work: up to 6 years after the work is completed, to meet tax and company record-keeping requirements.
• Staff sign-in sessions for our enquiry system last for a maximum of 7 days.
• Your cookie choice is remembered for 6 months, after which we ask again.
• Analytics and advertising data is kept by Google, Hotjar and Meta according to their own retention settings; the cookie lifetimes are listed below.

We review enquiry records against these periods and delete them under that process. We may keep a record for longer if the law requires it or if it is needed to deal with a legal claim.

Access to the enquiry system is limited to authorised staff, who sign in with individual accounts. Passwords are stored only as one-way hashes, and sign-in sessions are stored in the database as hashes, not as the sign-in token itself. Connections to the website are encrypted.

No method of sending or storing information online is completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect what you give us and to limit who can see it.

You have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete
• ask us to delete your information, in some circumstances
• ask us to restrict how we use your information, in some circumstances
• object to us using your information on the basis of our legitimate interests
• ask for your information in a portable format, where that right applies
• withdraw your consent to analytics and marketing cookies at any time, using “Cookie settings” at the bottom of any page
• object to direct marketing at any time

To use any of these rights, email info@british-engineers.com. We may need to confirm who you are before we act on a request. We aim to reply within one month; if a request is complex or you send several, we may take up to two further months and will tell you if so.

If you are unhappy with how your information has been handled, please contact us first so that we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, at ico.org.uk, by phone on 0303 123 1113, or by post at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

A cookie is a small file a website stores on your device. We ask for your permission before using any cookie that is not strictly necessary: no analytics or marketing cookie is set until you allow it. You can change your choice at any time with “Cookie settings” at the bottom of every page.

Cookie names and lifetimes are set by each provider and can change. If you do not allow analytics cookies, Google Analytics sets no cookies and Hotjar is not loaded. If you do not allow marketing cookies, our Google tags are told not to use advertising cookies or personalise adverts, and the Meta Pixel is not loaded. The staff sign-in cookie is first-party, not readable by scripts, marked secure on the live website and restricted to same-site use.

Other websites. Our website links to other websites, such as our training partner and the organisations we cite. This notice does not cover them; please read their own privacy notices.

Children. Our services are for adults and businesses. We do not knowingly collect information from children. If you think a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes. We update this notice when our services, suppliers or the law change. The latest version is always on this page, with the date it was last updated at the top.