At Paul Clarke IT Consultancy, we take your privacy seriously. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect personal information when you visit our websites, contact us, use our Customer Support Portal, or engage us to provide IT consultancy and technical support services.
1. Who We Are
Paul Clarke IT Consultancy provides IT consultancy and technical support services.
Our websites are:
- www.mrpaulclarke.co.uk – our main website.
- service.mrpaulclarke.co.uk – our Customer Support Portal.
For the purposes of the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, the Data Controller is Paul Clarke IT Consultancy, based in Crewe, Cheshire.
2. What Personal Data We Collect
The information we collect depends on how you interact with us and which services you use.
Contact Enquiries & Service Bookings
When you contact us by website, telephone, email or another agreed method, we may collect information including:
- Your name.
- Your email address.
- Your telephone number.
- Your business or organisation name.
- Your physical address where required for an on-site or home visit.
- Information about the IT service or assistance you require.
Customer Support Portal
When you use our Customer Support Portal at service.mrpaulclarke.co.uk, we may collect and store information necessary to provide and manage technical support.
This may include:
- Your name and email address.
- Your support portal account information.
- Support ticket numbers and status information.
- The subject and description of your support request.
- Messages and correspondence associated with your support ticket.
- Device names, operating system information and other technical details that you provide.
- Error messages, diagnostic information and log information supplied as part of a support request.
- Screenshots, documents and other files that you choose to attach to a support ticket.
- IP addresses and other technical or security information recorded by the website or support system.
This information is used to identify, investigate, respond to and document technical support requests.
Please do not include passwords, MFA codes, recovery codes, private encryption keys or other authentication credentials in support tickets or attachments. If credentials are required to complete support work, an appropriate method of providing them will be agreed separately.
Information About Other People
Business customers may occasionally provide information relating to their employees, users, customers or other individuals when requesting technical support.
Customers should only provide personal information that is reasonably necessary for us to investigate or resolve the support request and should ensure that they are authorised to provide that information.
Remote Support Session Data
To provide remote technical support, we may use secure remote-support tools including Microsoft Quick Assist and Zoho Assist.
- Session Access: Remote access is permission-based and is only established when authorised by the customer or an authorised user.
- Data Exposure: While resolving a technical issue, information displayed on the computer or device may be visible to us. We do not intentionally copy or retain personal files unless this is necessary to perform the requested work and has been agreed with the customer.
- Session Logs: Remote-support providers may record technical information such as connection times, session duration, device information and IP addresses for security, operational or auditing purposes.
Email Communications
We use email to communicate with customers and to provide updates relating to support requests and services.
The Customer Support Portal may send email notifications when a support request is created, updated, replied to or closed. Replies and other correspondence relating to a support request may form part of the ticket record.
Our business email services are provided using Microsoft 365.
Email Newsletter & Updates
If you choose to subscribe to email updates or blog notifications, we use your email address for that purpose. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time using the unsubscribe facility provided with the communication where available.
Cookies & Embedded Content
Our websites may use cookies that are necessary for functionality, security, authentication and maintaining user sessions.
Articles and pages may also contain embedded content from other websites, such as videos, maps or other external services. Embedded content may behave in the same way as if you visited the third-party website directly.
Those third-party services may collect information about you, use cookies or record your interaction with their content in accordance with their own privacy policies.
3. Why We Use Your Personal Data
We process personal information where it is necessary to provide requested services, communicate with customers, administer support requests, maintain appropriate business records, protect our systems and comply with legal obligations.
Depending on the circumstances, our lawful basis under UK GDPR may include:
- Contract – where processing is necessary to provide services you have requested or to take steps before entering into an agreement.
- Legitimate interests – where processing is reasonably necessary to operate, secure and improve our business and support services, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.
- Legal obligation – where we are required to retain or process information to comply with applicable law.
- Consent – where we specifically ask for your consent for a particular activity and consent is the appropriate lawful basis.
4. Who We Share Your Data With
We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information.
Information may be processed by trusted service providers where this is necessary to operate our business or provide the requested service. These may include:
- Microsoft – including Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Quick Assist.
- Zoho – where Zoho Assist is used to provide remote support.
- Website hosting and infrastructure providers required to operate our websites and Customer Support Portal.
- Other IT vendors or service providers where their involvement is necessary to investigate or resolve a technical issue.
- Professional advisers, insurers, regulators or legal authorities where disclosure is reasonably necessary or required by law.
Where a third-party service is used, that provider may process information in accordance with its own privacy terms and applicable data-protection obligations.
5. How Long We Retain Your Data
We do not keep personal information for longer than is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, subject to any legal, accounting, contractual or security requirements.
Support Tickets
Information held within the Customer Support Portal is subject to a 90-day retention period. Support ticket information that is no longer required is automatically removed or anonymised in accordance with the retention controls configured within the support system.
Information may be retained for longer where this is reasonably necessary for an ongoing dispute, security investigation, legal requirement or other legitimate business requirement.
Business & Accounting Records
Invoices, transaction records and other information required for accounting, taxation or legal purposes may be retained for up to six years, or for another period where required by law.
Email & Business Correspondence
Business correspondence may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to manage the customer relationship, provide services, maintain appropriate business records or deal with queries or disputes.
6. How We Protect Your Data
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, loss or destruction.
These measures may include access controls, authentication, encryption, secure communications, system updates, backups, security monitoring and restricting access to information to those who reasonably require it.
Remote support connections are established using secure remote-access technologies and require customer or authorised-user participation before access can be established.
7. International Data Transfers
Some technology providers used to operate our services may process information outside the United Kingdom.
Where personal information is transferred internationally, we rely on appropriate safeguards required by UK data-protection law, which may include UK adequacy regulations or approved contractual safeguards used by the relevant service provider.
8. Your Data Protection Rights
Depending on the circumstances, UK data-protection law may give you rights including the right to:
- Request access to personal information we hold about you.
- Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
- Ask us to erase personal information where applicable.
- Ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances.
- Object to certain processing based on legitimate interests.
- Request the transfer of information you provided to us where the right to data portability applies.
- Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
These rights are not absolute and may be subject to exemptions or legal requirements.
9. Making a Data Protection Request
If you wish to exercise a data-protection right or have a question about information we hold about you, please contact Paul Clarke IT Consultancy using the contact details provided on our website.
We may need to verify your identity before providing or changing personal information in response to a request.
10. Complaints
If you have concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact us first so that we have an opportunity to investigate and resolve the matter.
You also have the right to raise a concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data-protection regulator.
11. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our services, technology or legal obligations.
Last updated: 7 October 2026.
12. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the information we hold about you, or how your personal information is handled, please contact Paul Clarke IT Consultancy using the contact methods provided on our website.
