Privacy policy.

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This policy explains how we collect information, what we do with it and what controls you have over your personal information when using our website.

Your Privacy

We take our duty to process your personal information very seriously.

We may change this document from time to time to reflect the latest view of what we do with your information. Please check back frequently; you will be able to see if changes have been made by the date it was last updated.

Refer to the sections below for more details on how and why we use your personal information:

  • Website Usage

  • When you subscribe to email communication

  • When you contact us via email

  • When you take part in online research or surveys

  • Links to other websites

  • The information we need

  • Collecting your personal information

  • Where is your information stored?

  • Sharing your information

  • Retaining your information

  • Legitimate Interests

  • What are your rights?

  • How to contact us

  • About Us

WEBSITE USAGE

When you are browsing our website, we have cookies in place to ensure that the website works well and provides information on how you navigate the site and the pages you visit. You will be given the option to agree to these cookies when you visit the website. We may also use cookies to run retargeted online advertising. We also have some essential cookies in operation which help the website work well, you can block these but it may affect the website’s ability to respond correctly, load pages etc.

WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

When subscribing to email communications, we ask for your name and email address. This allows us to personalise our communications with you. You will remain on the mailing list until you withdraw your consent by unsubscribing. You can unsubscribe at any time, either by using the unsubscribe option in any of our newsletters or by emailing us. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies including clear gifs to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter.

WHEN YOU CONTACT US VIA EMAIL

When you make an enquiry via email, the information in the email will only be used to respond to your request or question. We respond to email queries as promptly as possible but it can take up to 48 hours to respond to email queries.

WHEN YOU TAKE PART IN ONLINE RESEARCH OR SURVEYS

Occasionally, we ask for feedback on your interaction with the website and our services. We will use a secure online platform to gather your responses which may include your name and contact details in case we need to contact you to follow up on your answers.  

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

In order to be able to provide you with additional services, some of the links on our website will take you to third-party websites for these services.

We suggest that you review the privacy policies for any third-party websites you visit as we cannot accept any liability for the way they manage your personal information.

THE INFORMATION WE NEED

Van Zyl & de Villiers Ltd (VZDV Consulting Engineers) is what’s known as the ‘data controller’ of the personal information you provide to us. Your relationship with us determines how much information we collect from you. We will only ever collect the information needed to provide you with advice and services.

We will be very clear with you about the reason for collecting information and how we intend to use, share and store that information at the point we collect it.

COLLECTING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect personal information about you through a variety of different methods including when you:

  • Sign up to our email communications

  • Schedule a call

  • Fill in the contact us form

  • Sign up to work with us

  • Send us correspondence via email

  • Give us feedback

WHERE IS YOUR INFORMATION STORED?

Wherever possible, all the personal information we process is processed within the European Economic Area (EEA).  Some of our third-party service providers, for example Acuity Scheduling, are based outside the EEA so their processing of your personal information will involve a transfer outside the EEA.

Whenever we transfer your personal information outside of the EEA, we do our best to make sure a similar degree of security of personal information by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • We will only transfer your personal information to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal information by the European Commission; or

  • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts or codes of conduct or certification mechanisms approved by the European Commission which give personal information the same protection it has in Europe; or

  • Where we use providers based in the United States, we may transfer information to them if they are part of the EU-US Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal information shared between Europe and the US.

SHARING YOUR INFORMATION

We do not share your information with any other organisations or individuals unless we are obliged to by law, for purposes of national security, taxation and criminal investigations and in the following instances:

  • If you have agreed that we may do so

  • If we sell the business – the new owner may obtain subscriber and past client information. This information would only be used for the same purposes for which it was originally obtained.

  • If we run an event or service in partnership with other named organisations, your details may need to be shared. We will be very clear what will happen to your personal information when you register.

And, we will never sell or rent your personal information to other organisations.

RETAINING YOUR INFORMATION

We hold your information only as long as necessary for each reason that we use it. For example, your email address on our subscriber list will be held whilst you are a subscriber. If you work with us, we will retain that information for up to seven years for accounting purposes. During the retention period we ensure the security and integrity of the information.

WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS?

You have a number of rights about how the personal information you provide can be used. These are:

  • Transparency over how we use your personal information (right to be informed).

  • The ability to request a copy of the information we hold about you, which will be provided to you within one month (right of access).

  • Update or amend the information we hold about you if it is wrong (right of rectification).

  • Ask us to stop using your information (right to restrict processing).

  • Ask us to remove your personal information from our records (right to be ‘forgotten’).

  • Object to the processing of your information for marketing purposes (right to object).

  • Obtain and reuse your personal information for your own purposes (right to data portability).

  • Not be subject to a decision when it is based on automated processing (automated decision-making and profiling).

If you wish to raise a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, you can contact us, and we will investigate the matter. If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal information in accordance with the law, you may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

If you would like to know more about your rights under data protection law, you can find out more at the Information Commissioners Office website.

HOW TO CONTACT US

If you wish to talk through anything in our privacy policy, find out more about your rights or obtain a copy of the information we hold about you, please contact us and we will be happy to help.

ABOUT US

Van Zyl & de Villiers Ltd, vzdv@vzdv.com, +44 (0)1727 731560, 6a Parkway, Valley Road, Porters Wood, St Albans, AL3 6PA, UK. Registered Company No. 03980716.