Privacy Notice

Privacy Policy reviewed 21.12.23

  1. Introduction
    This Privacy Notice covers all our websites associated with Optimum Skills as a company and how we process your data through our websites. www.optimumskills.co.uk, Optimum Skills may be known as (“We or Us”) throughout this document and we are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
    This policy (together with our terms of use and any other documents referred to therein) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
    For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act), the registered data controller at Optimum Skills is, Unit 23, Parsons Court, Welbury Way, Newton Aycliffe, DL5 6ZE
    Your privacy and security whilst using any of our services are of paramount importance to us. The policy below outlines our handling practices and how we collect and use the Personal Data you provide during your online and offline interactions with us. As used in this Privacy Policy, “Personal Data” means any information that can be used to individually identify you, and may include, but is not limited to, name, email address, contact details include phone number and email address or other physical address, and IP Address or any other personally identifiable information.
    If you have any questions regarding our privacy notice please do get in touch.
  2. Who we are?
    The designated data controller will be the controller of personal data that you have provided, collected and/or processed pursuant to this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about our policy please contact us at
    [email protected]
  3. What information do we collect?
    Some of the information we collect will be done so automatically using cookies. Please see our Cookie Policy for further information.
    Other information will be collected purely for the purposes of dealing with your enquiry or fulfilling our contract or service with you. This information, when collected through our website usually involves contact details such as name, email address, telephone numbers, and we will then ask for your physical address. This information constitutes personally identifiable information and as such will be treated in accordance with EU General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (GDPR) rules.

We may collect and process the following data about you:
Information that you provide by filling in forms on our site www.optimumskills.co.uk (our site). This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our site, subscribing to our service, posting material or requesting further services. This is likely to include, Full Name, Business name, Email, Telephone numbers. We may also ask you for information [when you enter a competition or promotion sponsored by optimumskills.co.uk] and when you report a problem with our site.
If you contact us, we will keep a record of that correspondence.
We may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes and updating our records.
Details of your visits to our site including, such as how you came to our site and the pages you visit, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, whether this is required by the resources that you access.
Details for the purposes of your activities with us.
In our correspondence with you we may track an email if it has been opened or a link clicked to ensure deliverability of our emails.
Contacting you in connection with our relationship to you as a subscriber or a customer.
IP addresses are anonymised.
We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and security for use only in line with our businesses legitimate interests.
We may further collect this information from you to ensure our site stays secure and our users can access our services if need be. This information is set to expire in our cookies. (see policy for further details.)
Cookies
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Cookie policy https://optimumskills.co.uk/cookie-policy/

We do not collect sensitive data via our website.

  1. How do we use personal information?
    We will use the information you provide only for the purposes of our business. This could mean providing you with details of our goods and services. It also provides us with the ability to contact you with information about your enquiry.
    We may also need your details to provide customer feedback and support.
    We will also use this information to comply with any legal obligations; For example, prevention of fraud or legal or accountancy requirements.

We use information held about you in the following ways:
To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you.
To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.
To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so.
To notify you about changes to our service.
Delivery of relevant articles, videos and other content including advertisements.
To protect our website including reporting of issues and faults or security issues arising.
We do not pass personal information to other parties or sell data. If you are an existing customer, we will only contact you by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) with information about goods and services similar to those which were the subject of a previous interest to you.

  1. What legal basis do we have for processing your personal data?
    We do not need your consent to process your personal data in order to perform our contractual obligations to you.
    Under GDPR we will ensure that your personal data is processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently, without adversely affecting your rights. We will only process your personal data if at least one of the following basis applies:

You have given consent to the processing of your personal data for one or more specific purposes, such as entering an agreement with us;

Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at the request of you prior to entering into a contract with us;

Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject;

Processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us, except where such interests are overridden by your fundamental rights and freedoms. For example, to keep our records up to date, study how users interact and use our services and products.

  1. When do we share personal data?
    We may at times need to share your personal data with third parties to whom we contract to provide a product or a service. If this is necessary, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is handled securely and in accordance with your rights. Data will only be revealed on a need to know basis and we only deal with third parties that we know to have safeguards in place to ensure our obligations towards your data security are met.

We currently deal with the following types of businesses to whom we may need to provide some of your information:
In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
If optimumskills.co.uk or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use or terms and conditions of supply and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of optimumskills.co.uk, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Service providers who supply our website hosting and domain names
Professional services including, accountants, bank, payment processors, legal or insurance.

  1. Where do we store and process personal data?
    Where we store your personal and business-sensitive data
    The data that we collect from you may be transferred to and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work with us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of your order, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy and UK, European and EU-US Privacy Shield rules. All our overseas processors have been information audited and we are satisfied they are compliant.
    All information you provide to us is stored in the cloud. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology and PCI compliant gateways. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.
    Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access and have definitive timescales for storing your data.
    We will not ask and do not collect any sensitive or financial data directly from you. The links below are to the policies and contracts, that we have in place to protect your data with our third partners.
    All financial and identifiable data may be processed via our registered data processors,

The following processors help us administer our business Microsoft

These businesses are our analytics partners Google HubSpot

  1. How do we secure personal data?
    We try to limit the amount of data we collect from you specifically through our website. Data security is of great importance to us, and to protect your data we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure data collected through our site. Staff are only allowed to access data on a need to know basis.
  2. How long do we keep your personal data for?

We will only retain your data for as long as is necessary to carry out our services and to comply with any legal obligations, such as HMRC or auditing purposes. We have a yearly review of all data and any data that is no longer needed will be securely shredded or securely deleted.

  1. Your rights in relation to personal data
    Under the GDPR, you have:
    • the right to request access to, deletion of or correction of, your any aspect of the personal data we hold;
    • the right to complain to a supervisory authority;
    • be informed of what data processing is taking place;
    • the right to restrict processing;
    • the right to data portability;
    • object to processing of your personal data;

Your rights can be exercised accordingly by getting in touch with us, by phone, email or post using the contact details in part 2. Please bear in mind that we may require further information to help us confirm your identity and your right to make any request.

  1. Linking to other websites / third party content
    Our websites and services may provide links to other third-party websites and services which are outside our control and not covered by this policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on these (and all) sites you visit or services you use.
  2. Changes to our privacy policy
    Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail.

13. Questions or concerns or wish to submit a request for your data?
If you have any questions about our policy please contact us at
Designated Data Controller
Unit 23, Parsons Court, Welbury Way, Newton Aycliffe, DL5 6ZE
01325 311832
[email protected]