Privacy Policy
1. Introduction and Identity of the Data Controller
HELPATH LTD ("HELPATH", "we", "us", "our") is a company registered in England and Wales. Our registered office is at 5 Brayford Square, London, E1 0SG, United Kingdom. We are the data controller in respect of the personal data described in this Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy explains how HELPATH LTD collects, uses, stores, shares and protects personal data in connection with the operation of our website at helpath.ink (the "Website"), the delivery of our professional services, and all other interactions we have with clients, prospective clients, suppliers, partners and members of the public.
This Privacy Policy is issued in accordance with the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation ("UK GDPR") as retained in UK law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, and the Data Protection Act 2018. We take our obligations under applicable data protection legislation seriously and are committed to processing personal data fairly, lawfully and transparently.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data processing practices, you may contact us by email at about@helpath.ink or by post at our registered address above.
2. What Personal Data We Collect
We collect personal data from you in various contexts depending on your relationship with us. The categories of personal data we may collect and process include:
2.1 Data You Provide Directly
- Identity data: Your full name, job title and professional role.
- Contact data: Your email address, telephone number, postal address and organisation name.
- Enquiry data: Information you provide when submitting a clarity brief or enquiry through our Website contact form, including descriptions of your technical challenges, business objectives and project requirements.
- Communications data: The content of emails, messages, proposals and correspondence exchanged between you and HELPATH.
- Contractual data: Information provided during the negotiation, execution or performance of a services agreement, including project specifications, deliverable descriptions and commercial terms.
- Payment data: Invoice and billing information where relevant, although we do not store payment card details directly.
2.2 Data Collected Automatically
- Technical data: Your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device type, referring URL and general geographic location derived from your IP address.
- Usage data: Pages visited on our Website, time spent on pages, links clicked, search queries entered and session duration.
- Cookie data: Data stored in cookies and similar tracking technologies as described in our Cookie Policy at cookie-policy.html.
2.3 Data Received from Third Parties
- Referral data: Information provided about you by colleagues, business partners or referrers when introducing you to HELPATH.
- Publicly available data: Professional information such as job titles, employer and professional background obtained from publicly accessible sources including LinkedIn, company websites and professional directories, where relevant to a proposed or existing business relationship.
3. Legal Bases for Processing
We only process personal data where we have a valid legal basis under UK GDPR to do so. The legal bases we rely upon are:
- Contract (Article 6(1)(b) UK GDPR): Processing necessary to perform a contract with you, or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract. This applies to processing related to the delivery of our professional services.
- Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR): Processing necessary for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests. This applies, for example, to business development communications with prospective clients, the improvement of our Website and services, and the management of our business operations.
- Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c) UK GDPR): Processing necessary to comply with a legal obligation to which we are subject, including tax and accounting obligations, compliance with court orders and regulatory requirements.
- Consent (Article 6(1)(a) UK GDPR): Where you have provided clear, informed and freely given consent to a specific processing activity, such as the use of non-essential cookies or subscription to marketing communications.
4. How We Use Your Personal Data
We use the personal data we collect for the following purposes:
- To respond to enquiries submitted through our Website contact form and to provide preliminary analysis of your technical challenge.
- To negotiate, enter into and perform contracts for the provision of professional IT and software engineering services.
- To manage our ongoing client relationships, including project delivery communications, progress reporting and post-delivery support.
- To process invoices and manage accounts receivable and payable.
- To comply with applicable legal and regulatory obligations, including tax reporting requirements.
- To maintain the security and proper functioning of our Website, including monitoring for unauthorised access and technical faults.
- To analyse Website usage patterns in order to improve the content, structure and performance of our Website.
- To send relevant business communications, including service updates and developments, where we have a legitimate interest or your consent to do so.
- To maintain appropriate business records and internal documentation in accordance with our legal obligations and governance standards.
- To defend or enforce our legal rights and obligations in connection with disputes, claims or regulatory proceedings.
5. Data Sharing and Disclosure
We do not sell, rent or trade personal data to third parties. We may share your personal data with the following categories of recipients where necessary:
- Service providers and subprocessors: Third-party companies that assist us in operating our business, including cloud hosting providers, email platform providers, accounting software providers, and project management tools. All such providers are bound by data processing agreements that restrict their use of your data to the services they provide to us.
- Professional advisors: Solicitors, accountants and other professional advisors where necessary for the conduct of our business or the defence of legal claims.
- Regulatory bodies and law enforcement: Where we are required to disclose information by applicable law, court order or regulatory direction, or where we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of HELPATH, our clients or others.
- Successors in business: In the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganisation or sale of all or substantially all of our business, personal data may be transferred to the acquiring entity as part of that transaction.
Where we engage third-party subprocessors who process personal data on our behalf, we ensure that appropriate contractual arrangements are in place, including standard data processing clauses where required, and that the subprocessor provides sufficient guarantees about their data security practices.
6. International Transfers of Personal Data
HELPATH LTD is based in the United Kingdom. Where we engage service providers or subprocessors located outside the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we ensure that any transfer of personal data is subject to appropriate safeguards as required by UK GDPR. These safeguards include, where applicable, adequacy decisions, UK International Data Transfer Agreements (IDTAs), or UK Addenda to EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
You may request further information about the safeguards we have put in place for international transfers by contacting us at about@helpath.ink.
7. Data Retention
We retain personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or as required by applicable law. Our retention practices are as follows:
- Enquiry data from non-clients: Retained for up to 24 months from the date of the enquiry, unless a business relationship develops, in which case the applicable client retention period applies.
- Client contractual and project data: Retained for a minimum of 7 years from the conclusion of the relevant engagement, in accordance with UK tax and company law requirements.
- Financial and invoicing records: Retained for 7 years from the end of the relevant tax year, in accordance with HMRC requirements.
- Website analytics data: Aggregated and anonymised analytics data is retained indefinitely. Raw session data is retained for a maximum of 26 months.
- Email communications: Retained for 3 years from the date of the final communication, unless related to a client engagement, in which case the client retention period applies.
At the end of the applicable retention period, personal data is securely deleted or anonymised in accordance with our data management procedures.
8. Your Rights Under UK GDPR
Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to personal data that we hold about you:
- Right of access: You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you (a "subject access request").
- Right to rectification: You have the right to request that inaccurate personal data be corrected and that incomplete personal data be completed.
- Right to erasure: In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete your personal data ("the right to be forgotten").
- Right to restriction of processing: In certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we restrict our processing of your personal data.
- Right to data portability: Where processing is based on consent or contract and is carried out by automated means, you have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
- Right to object: You have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests. You also have the right to object at any time to processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes.
- Rights related to automated decision-making: You have the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing where those decisions produce legal or similarly significant effects.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at about@helpath.ink. We will respond to your request within one calendar month. In complex cases or where we receive multiple requests, we may extend this period by a further two months and will notify you accordingly.
We may need to verify your identity before processing certain requests. This is a necessary security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
9. Automated Decision-Making and Profiling
HELPATH LTD does not use automated decision-making processes, including profiling, that produce legal or similarly significant effects on individuals. All significant decisions relating to our client relationships and service delivery are made by human beings with appropriate knowledge and authority.
10. Security of Personal Data
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, alteration, disclosure or destruction. These measures include:
- Encryption of data in transit using TLS 1.2 or higher.
- Access controls limiting access to personal data to authorised personnel on a need-to-know basis.
- Regular security assessments and penetration testing of our systems.
- Staff training on data protection obligations and information security practices.
- Incident response procedures for identifying, containing and reporting data security incidents.
- Data processing agreements with all third-party subprocessors who handle personal data on our behalf.
In the event of a personal data breach that is likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals, we will notify the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in accordance with our obligations under UK GDPR. Where the breach is likely to result in a high risk, we will also notify the affected individuals without undue delay.
11. Cookies and Similar Technologies
Our Website uses cookies and similar technologies to improve your browsing experience, analyse Website performance and support our marketing activities. For full details of the cookies we use, their purposes and how to manage your preferences, please refer to our Cookie Policy at cookie-policy.html.
12. Children's Privacy
Our Website and professional services are directed at businesses and working professionals. We do not knowingly collect or process personal data relating to children under the age of 18. If you believe that we have inadvertently received personal data relating to a child, please contact us at about@helpath.ink and we will take immediate steps to delete that information.
13. Third-Party Websites
Our Website may contain links to third-party websites or services that are not operated by HELPATH LTD. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third-party operators. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party websites you visit via links from our Website.
14. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our data processing practices, applicable law or regulatory guidance. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this policy and, where appropriate, notify you by email or by a prominent notice on our Website. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to remain informed about how we protect your personal data.
15. How to Complain
If you have concerns about how we are processing your personal data, we would encourage you to contact us in the first instance at about@helpath.ink so that we can address your concerns. We take all complaints seriously and will respond within a reasonable timeframe.
If you are not satisfied with our response, or if you believe that we are processing your personal data unlawfully, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which is the UK supervisory authority for data protection matters. The ICO can be contacted at:
- Website: ico.org.uk
- Telephone: 0303 123 1113
- Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
16. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns or requests in connection with this Privacy Policy or our data protection practices, please contact HELPATH LTD at:
- Email: about@helpath.ink
- Telephone: +44 7127 991133
- Post: HELPATH LTD, 5 Brayford Square, London, E1 0SG, United Kingdom