Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains how the AC Valve Alliance group of companies collects, stores, uses and protects your personal data. For simplicity, the AC Valve Alliance group of companies is referred to as ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ throughout this policy.

What this privacy policy covers:

• 1. What information we process about you
• 2. When we collect information about you
  2.1 Call Recording
• 3. Why we need to collect and process your data
• 4. Who we share your data with
• 5. Why we share your data
• 6. How we store and protect your information
• 7. How you can request access or corrections to your personal data
• 8. How you can request withdrawal of your personal data
• 9. Your rights under UK GDPR
• 10. International Data Transfers
• 11. What information we process about you
  We collect, store and process your full name, email address, direct telephone numbers, postal/billing address, job title and place of work.

We also store information gathered by the use of cookies. Cookies are small pieces of text that track your patterns of behaviour and store them in your web browser. Cookies are used to make your internet browsing more useful to you, by storing your preferences and enabling the delivery of relevant advertisements and functions to you.

We use cookies to identify which pages on our site are being used. This helps us analyse data about our web traffic and improve our website based on the needs of our audience. No personal information is stored, and in no way are we able to access your computer or sensitive data about you.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers accept cookies, but you can modify your browser settings to decline them if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of our website.

2. When we collect information about you

• When you submit a message to us using our website’s contact form
• When you sign up to receive our newsletters on our website
• When you engage with us through social media platforms
• When you choose to provide feedback or complete a survey we may send you
• When you enter prize draws or competitions
• When you provide us with a business card with your details on
• When you enter into a contract with us in order for us to provide you with a service
• When you email or telephone us directly and openly share your information
• Occasionally we will source data from trusted GDPR-compliant suppliers

2.1 Call Recording

We may record telephone calls using CallTrackingMetrics for the following purposes:

• Training and quality assurance
• Monitoring and improving customer service
• Fulfilling regulatory or legal obligations
• Keeping a record of communications where it is in our legitimate interests

These recordings may include your name, contact details, and any information shared during the call. We process this data under the lawful basis of our legitimate interests, and where applicable, the performance of a contract.

Recordings are securely stored, access is limited to authorised personnel, and they are retained only as long as necessary, typically no longer than 12 months, unless required for compliance or legal purposes.

3. Why we need to collect and process your data

There are a number of different lawful bases on which we rely for collecting and processing personal data.

These are as follows:

Consent
This means that we have received clear consent from you to process your personal data for a specific purpose. An example of this would be if you were to tick a box confirming that you would like to receive email newsletters. Your consent will be ‘granular’, which means you will be able to give separate consent for separate things (e.g. receiving emails, telephone calls, direct mail).

The consent lawful basis applies to our data collection through our website’s contact form, our newsletter signup form, and any competitions or surveys we organise.

Contractual
If you are, or if you become, a customer of ours, we are contractually obliged to hold your personal data on record. This will allow us to communicate with you via email or telephone, in order to carry out the service you have requested from us.

Similarly, if you have requested a quotation from us to carry out a service, we are contractually required to process your data to deliver on our agreement.

Legal obligation
We may need to collect and process your data, if we are required by law to do so. This can include passing on details of people involved in criminal or fraudulent activity.

Legitimate interests
Your data may be processed under the legitimate interests’ basis, in ways you would reasonably expect from us. This would have minimal privacy impact and would not affect your individual rights or freedom.

Examples include using information about your previous purchases from us to build a picture of your current situation and potential need for our services.

We will also use your email address and telephone number to contact you directly with marketing messages and educational content which we feel would be relevant and beneficial to you.

Legitimate interests covers our data sourcing from external GDPR-compliant suppliers, inbound enquiries, being handed a business card, and social media engagement.

4. Who we share your data with

We may share your personal data with trusted third parties where necessary to carry out our business activities and provide our services. These may include:

• IT service providers who support our systems and infrastructure;
• Marketing agencies who assist with campaigns and customer communications;
• Delivery and logistics partners involved in transporting goods;
• Manufacturing supply partners who help to quote orders;
• CRM platform providers such as HubSpot, used to manage customer relationships and track communications;
• ERP system providers such as WinMan, used to manage operational, order and logistics data internally.

These third parties only process your data on our instructions and are subject to strict contractual obligations to maintain its confidentiality and security. We do not allow these providers to use your data for their own purposes.

We do not sell or share your data with third parties for their own marketing activities without your explicit consent.

5. Why we share your data

We share your personal data only where:

• It is necessary to fulfil a contract with you or take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
• It is required to comply with a legal obligation;
• It is in our legitimate interests and does not override your rights and freedoms.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we always balance this with your privacy rights and will not use your data for purposes you would not reasonably expect.

6. How we store and protect your information

We apply careful consideration to how we store and protect data.

Your data is stored in an internal CRM system (HubSpot) where we log your details, purchasing activity and notes from when any communication occurs with you. Our system is password protected with a limited number of log-ins and users.

Operational and order data may also be stored in our ERP system (WinMan), which helps us manage internal processes such as order fulfilment and logistics.

Our electronic communication systems such as emails and social media channels are password protected with a limited number of administrators.

We monitor our systems regularly and carry out updates and maintenance where required, in order to strengthen the security of our storage and processes.

When we collect your personal data, we will keep it for as long as we feel is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. This can be up to five years unless you request to opt out of our communications. It also includes our direct marketing activity that is covered by our ‘legitimate interests’ basis.

7. How you can request access or corrections to your personal data

You have the right to request a copy of the personal data that we hold about you, and to correct it if it is incorrect or incomplete. This will be free of charge.

If you would like to access the information we hold about you, please contact us at marketing@acvalvealliance.com, call us on +44 (0)1530 442 322, or write to us at Unit 6, Interlink Way South, Bardon Hill, Leicestershire, LE67 1PH.

8. How you can request withdrawal of your personal data

There are a number of ways in which you can opt out of communications from us:

• When receiving any marketing communications from us via email, click on the ‘unsubscribe’ link. This will automatically stop further emails from being sent to you.
• Email us at marketing@acvalvealliance.com
• Write to us at Unit 6, Interlink Way South, Bardon Hill, Leicestershire, LE67 1PH

9. Your rights under UK GDPR

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal data
• Request erasure of your personal data where there is no legitimate reason for us to continue processing it
• Restrict processing in certain circumstances
• Object to the processing of your data for direct marketing purposes
• Data portability in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format
• Not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided in section 7.

10. International Data Transfers

Some of our service providers are located in the European Union. Transfers to these providers are permitted under UK GDPR as the EU is recognised as providing an adequate level of data protection.

Where data is transferred outside of the UK or EEA to a country without an adequacy decision, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place such as Standard Contractual Clauses or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA).