Privacy policy

Privacy & Cookies Policy

BACKGROUND:

Communications Centre International Ltd understand that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used and shared online. We respect and value the privacy of everyone who visits this website, www.commscentre.com (“our site”) and will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a manner that is consistent with our obligations and your rights under the law.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and ensure that you understand it. Your acceptance of our Privacy Policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of our site and you will be required to read and accept this Privacy Policy when signing up for an account. If you do not accept and agree with this Privacy Policy, you must stop using our site immediately.

1. Introduction

Comms Centre (“we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy in compliance with applicable data protection laws, including the UK GDPR.

This Privacy & Cookies Policy explains:

What personal data we collect
How and why we use it
How long we keep it
Who we may share it with
Your rights
How to contact us

2. Who We Are

Comms Centre is the data controller responsible for your personal data.

Contact details:
Email: sales@commscentre.com
Address: Comms Centre, Suite G1, Maritime Place, Quayside, Chatham Maritime, Kent, ME4 4QZ
Telephone: 01634 291 191

· Our VAT number is GB 844270530.

· Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted by email at sales@commscentre.com or by telephone on 01634 291 291, or by post at the address above.

· We are a member of: FIA (Fibre Optic Industry Association)

· We are certified with: ISO 9001 and ISO 14001

Comms Centre was formed in 1989, and acquired by Networks Centre in 2018. The business was created, initially to address a gap in the market where a growing demand for fibre optics was not being met satisfactorily by existing suppliers. Comms Centre quickly grew to encompass end to end network infrastructure provision and built a strong reputation for supplying reputable brands at a competitive price, coupled to excellent service & support.

3. Collection of Personal Data

This Privacy Policy applies only to your use of our site. Our site may contain links to other websites. Please note that we have no control over how your data is collected, stored, or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.

We may collect and process the following types of personal data:

3.1 Information You Provide

Name
Email address
Phone number
Any information submitted via forms, enquiries, or subscriptions

3.2 Automatically Collected Information

When you use our website, we may automatically collect:

IP address
Browser type and version
Device and operating system
Pages viewed and browsing activity

3.3 Communications Data

We may monitor and record communications (e.g. calls or emails) for:

Quality assurance (ISO 9001:2015)
Compliance
Fraud prevention

4. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Cookies are small files placed on your device to improve your experience.

We use cookies to:

Analyse website traffic and usage
Improve functionality and performance
Tailor content to user preferences

Cookies do not give us access to your device beyond the data you choose to share.

You can control cookies through your browser settings, although disabling them may affect website functionality.

Our site may place and access certain first party cookies on your computer or device. First party cookies are those placed directly by us and are used only by us. We use cookies to facilitate and improve your experience of our site and to provide and improve our products and services. We have carefully chosen these cookies and have taken steps to ensure that your privacy and personal data is protected and respected at all times.

All cookies used by and on our site are used in accordance with current cookie law.

Before cookies are placed on your computer or device, you will be shown a pop up message requesting your consent to set those cookies. By giving your consent to the placing of cookies you are enabling us to provide the best possible experience and service to you. You may, if you wish, deny consent to the placing of cookies; however certain features of our site may not function fully or as intended.

Certain features of our site depend on cookies to function. Cookie law deems these cookies to be “strictly necessary”. The categories and description of cookies are shown below in this section. Your consent will not be sought to place these cookies, but it is still important that you are aware of them. You may still block these cookies by changing your internet browser’s settings as detailed below in this section, but please be aware that our site may not work properly if you do so. We have taken great care to ensure that your privacy is not at risk by allowing them.

The types of cookies that may be placed on your computer or device:

Session Cookies

These cookies are used 'in-session' each time you visit and then expire when you leave a site or shortly thereafter: they are not stored on your Device permanently, do not contain any personal data and help by minimising the need to transfer personal data across the internet. These cookies can be deleted or you can refuse to allow their use, but this will hamper the performance and your experience in using the site. These cookies also take time stamps that record when you access a site and when you leave a site.

Tracking Cookies

These cookies enable us to recognize repeat visitors to our site. By matching an anonymous, randomly generated identifier, a tracking cookie keeps track of where a user of our site came from, what search engine they may have used, what link they clicked on, what keyword they used and where they were in the world when they accessed a site. By monitoring this data, we can make improvements to our site.

Persistent Cookies

This type of cookie is saved on your Device for a fixed period (sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for a year or longer) and is not deleted when the browser is closed. Persistent cookies are used where we need to remember who you are for more than one browsing session. For example, this type of cookie can be used to store your preferences, so that they are remembered for the next visit to a site.

Performance or Analytical Cookies

Performance cookies are used to analyse how the site is used and to monitor its performance, which allows us to improve your experience in using the site. These cookies help us to tailor the content of the site to reflect what the site users find most interesting and to identify when technical issues with the site arise. We may also use this data to compile reports to help us to analyse how site are used, what the most common issues are and how we can improve the site.

Our site uses analytics services provided by Google Analytics. Website analytics refers to a set of tools used to collect and analyse anonymous usage information, enabling us to better understand how our site is used. This, in turn, enables us to improve our site and the products and services offered through it. You do not have to allow us to use these cookies, however whilst our use of them does not pose any risk to your privacy or your safe use of our site, it does enable us to continually improve our site, making it a better and more useful experience for you.

In addition to the controls that we provide, you can choose to enable or disable cookies in your internet browser. Most internet browsers also enable you to choose whether you wish to disable all cookies or only third party cookies. By default, most internet browsers accept cookies but this can be changed. For further details, please consult the help menu in your internet browser or the documentation that came with your device.

You can choose to delete cookies on your computer or device at any time, however you may lose any information that enables you to access our site more quickly and efficiently including, but not limited to, login and personalisation settings.

5. How We Use Your Personal Data

We may use your personal data for:

Providing services and responding to enquiries
Processing transactions and business relationships
Statistical analysis and website improvement
Marketing communications (with your consent)
Credit checks and fraud prevention
Legal compliance and protection of our business

We will only use your data where we have a lawful basis, including:

Consent
Contractual necessity
Legal obligation

We only keep your personal data for as long as we need to in order to use it or for as long as we have your permission to keep it.

Your data will only be stored in the UK or within the European Economic Area (“the EEA”) (The EEA consists of all EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein).

If we do store data outside the EEA, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is treated as safely and securely as it would be within the UK and General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

Data security is very important to us, and to protect your data we have taken suitable measures to safeguard and secure data collected through our site.

· Steps we take to secure and protect your data include:

· Anonymising stored data

· Data entry processes to capture legal basis

· 2 Step authentication & encryption of portable machine storage

· 2 Yearly General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) Data Audit to reduce duplicated and non-essential stored customer data.

· Enforceable agreements with 3rd Party Processors to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and safeguard data.

You have the right to ask for a copy of any of your personal data held by us (where such data is held). Under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), no fee is payable and response to your request free of charge. Please contact us for more details using the contact details below.

6. Marketing

We may send you information about products, services, or offers that may interest you.

You can opt out at any time by:

Using unsubscribe links
Contacting us directly

7. Data Sharing

We may share your personal data with:

Service providers supporting our operations
Credit reference agencies (e.g. for credit checks)
Law enforcement or regulators where required by law

We do not sell or share your personal data with unrelated third parties for marketing purposes.

In certain circumstances, we may be legally required to share certain data held by us, which may include your personal data, for example, where we are involved in legal proceedings, where we are complying with legal obligations, a court order, or a governmental authority.

· We may also share your data with other companies in our group for purposes of account management, credit references and marketing.

· We may sometimes contract with third parties to supply products and services to you on our behalf. These may include payment processing, delivery of goods, search engine facilities, advertising, and marketing. In some cases, the third parties may require access to some or all of your data. Where any of your data is required for such a purpose, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data will be handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the obligations of the third party under the law.

· We may compile statistics about the use of our site including data on traffic, usage patterns, user numbers, sales, and other information. All such data will be anonymised and will not include any personally identifying data, or any anonymised data that can be combined with other data and used to identify you. We may from time to time share such data with third parties such as prospective investors, affiliates, partners, and advertisers. Data will only be shared and used within the bounds of the law.

· We may sometimes use third party data processors that are located outside of the European Economic Area (“the EEA”) (The EEA consists of all EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein). Where we transfer any personal data outside the EEA, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is treated as safely and securely as it would be within the UK and under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) including:

· When you submit personal data via our site, you will be given options to restrict our use of your data. In particular, we aim to give you strong controls on our use of your data for direct marketing purposes (including the ability to opt-out of receiving emails from us which you may do by unsubscribing using the links provided in our emails, at the point of providing your details or at any time by managing your account).

· You may also wish to sign up to one or more of the preference services operating in the UK: The Telephone Preference Service (“the TPS”), the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (“the CTPS”), and the Mailing Preference Service (“the MPS”). These may help to prevent you receiving unsolicited marketing. Please note, however, that these services will not prevent you from receiving marketing communications that you have consented to receiving.

We may, from time to time, expand or reduce our business and this may involve the sale and/or the transfer of control of all or part of our business. Any personal data that you have provided will, where it is relevant to any part of our business that is being transferred, be transferred along with that part and the new owner or newly controlling party will, under the terms of this Privacy Policy, be permitted to use that data only for the same purposes for which it was originally collected by us.

In the event that any of your data is to be transferred in such a manner, you will be contacted in advance and informed of the changes. When contacted you will not, however, be given the choice to have your data deleted or withheld from the new owner or controller if there continues to be a legal basis for holding your data.

8. Credit Checking

We may perform credit checks to:

Assess creditworthiness
Prevent fraud and money laundering

These checks may be recorded with credit reference agencies such as Experian & Credit Safe.

9. Data Retention

We retain personal data only as long as necessary, including:

Customer data: up to 6 years after relationship ends
Email data: deleted after processing (where applicable)

We may retain data longer where required by law or for legitimate business purposes.

10. International Transfers

We do not transfer your personal data outside the United Kingdom.

11. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including:

Restricted access to authorised personnel
Secure systems and procedures
Breach detection and reporting processes

However, no internet transmission is completely secure.

12. Your Rights

Under data protection laws, you have rights including:

Access to your personal data
Correction of inaccurate data
Erasure of your data (“right to be forgotten”)
Restriction or objection to processing
Data portability
Withdrawal of consent
Right to complain to the ICO

For more information, visit the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

You may access certain areas of our site without providing any data at all. However, to use all features and functions available on our site you may be required to submit or allow for the collection of certain data.

You may restrict our use of cookies.

13. Links to Other Websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for their privacy practices, and you should review their policies separately.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time (for example, if the law changes). Any changes will be immediately posted on our site and you will be deemed to have accepted the terms of the Privacy Policy on your first use of our site following the alterations. We recommend that you check this page regularly to keep up-to-date.

We may update this policy periodically. Changes may be communicated via:

Website notices
Email notifications (where applicable)

Please review this page regularly to stay informed.

15. Contact Us

If you have any questions or requests regarding this policy or your personal data, please contact:

Email: sales@commscentre.com
Address: Comms Centre, Suite G1, Maritime Place, Quayside, Chatham Maritime, Kent, ME4 4QZ
Telephone: 01634 291 191

Please ensure that your query is clear, particularly if it is a request for information about the data we hold about you.