This notice sets out the personal information that we gather from you when you utilise our services or access our website and how we use that information.
CUL gives pricing advice and obtains quotes for utilities and commodities exclusively for business clients, including SME clients. Most of the information we gather to provide these services does not fall into the category of personal data. However, as some of the data we gather and analyse will originate from sole traders or partnerships it may constitute personal data under the relevant regulations.
The personal data that we collect will be gathered when:
- You inquire about utilising our services directly with our staff including by telephone;
- We are contacted through our website;
- You have otherwise been granted access to our information and services.
- We use third-party organisations to provide data about you and your business;
- We conduct market research from publicly accessible sources including the Internet and social media platforms; and
- You are employed by or make an application for employment with CUL.
The following types of information may be gathered:
- Personal names, names and addresses of businesses, contact phone numbers, and email addresses. Additionally, for verification purposes, we might request your DOB.
- Data necessary for us to deliver our services, such as information regarding your current utility provider, contract expiring dates, meter readings and consumption, complete electricity MPAN numbers, and gas MPRN details.
- Data pertaining to a website, such as traffic, location, weblog, and other forms of communication information.
- Financial or payment information, including the details of your credit or debit cards and bank account.
No special category data is collected by us for our own processing in our capacity as a data controller.
We use the above information:
- To help us provide our services in accordance with our contract with you;
- To allow us to provide you with information relating to our services;
- To fulfil our legal and regulatory responsibilities as a Third Party Intermediary broker (TPI);
- For credit checking, assessment and approval processes connected with utility and commodity contracts;
- To obtain legal advice;
- To fulfil our legal and regulatory responsibilities as an employer; and
- For the welfare of our staff and visitors.
In particular, we need to share your data with prospective suppliers for utilities and commodities with whom we negotiate on your behalf. We also need to share your data with those selected third parties who assist us with some of the data gathering and contract preparation activities which are essential to our services. Details of those third parties we use from time to time are available on request at customerservices@corporate-utilities.co.uk
To mitigate the risk of unauthorised access or disclosure, we have implemented appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial protocols to protect and ensure the integrity of the data we gather both digitally and on paper. We restrict access to your data exclusively to the personnel who need it.
We will only ever disclose your personal information where it is necessary or desirable for us to do so for us to provide our services to you or where we have a legal obligation to disclose it. We will never sell your personal information to 3rd party nor use it for any purpose other than in relation to the provision of our services to you.
We are a United Kingdom-based company that will process and store personal information primarily in the United Kingdom or the European Union. If in the unlikely event we use service providers whose territories are outside the UK or the EU we will implement such additional measures as we consider necessary to ensure a comparable level of data privacy that is available in the UK and the EU.
We shall retain your personal information for the duration of any Agreement between us and thereafter for no longer than we reasonably consider is necessary to perform the contractual and other obligations for which it was collected and to meet our legal, accounting, and reporting obligations.
If we hold personal information about you and you are not a client, but instead a prospective client, we will not hold that information for more than 60 months. If we hold information about you because you are a prospective employee but are not engaged by us we will retain your personal information for no more than six months. If you are an employee, we will retain your personal information as part of our employee records and in accordance with HMRC regulations for a maximum of six years after you have left our employment.
CUL utilises client information, which may include personal data, for a variety of marketing activities. This includes:
- periodically communicating with existing and potential clients to inform them of our services and industry developments;
- promoting our services by hardcopy and electronic means, including social media platforms; and
- tracking email and website use with industry-standard technology and cookies.
These activities are performed in accordance with the Privacy Electronic Communications Regulation (PECR).
CUL’s website utilises Cookies which are files which collect data about your Internet usage. Cookies are automatically downloaded to the user’s computer and subsequently stored on the hard drive. They assist us in enhancing our website and the quality of service we deliver to you through the collection of statistical data pertaining to your browsing behaviours and patterns. Cookies do not attempt to identify you personally.
Every computer possesses the capability to reject cookies. This can be accomplished by enabling the browser setting that prohibits the acceptance of cookies. Opting out of accepting cookies could potentially restrict your access to specific sections of our website.
You have certain rights with regard to your personal information under the UK Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR).
You might be entitled to retrieve data that is stored about you. At any time, you may exercise your right of access in accordance with data protection law; object to our processing of your personal information for any of the purposes listed in this policy; or request that we restrict our processing of your information.
You may also request that we rectify and update at no cost any personal information that we may have about you that is inaccurate, obsolete, or out of date and you may request that we delete or transfer your personal information (under specific circumstances and subject to our legal obligations).
Any requests or questions relating to your rights under the Data Protection Act should be addressed to customerservices@corporate-utilities.co.uk
Additionally, if you consider that we have breached the provisions of the Data Protection Act, you may file a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection supervisory authority (www.ico.org.uk), at any time. We are registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office and our ICO registration number is ZB612190.
This Privacy Notice is periodically reviewed and accordingly we reserve the right to modify it at any time. This privacy notice was last updated on 24th November 2023.
