Privacy policy

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 17 September 2026

1. Who we are

Gutter Vacuum Systems Ltd (referred to as “GVS”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is the controller of the personal information described in this privacy policy.

Company name: Gutter Vacuum Systems Ltd
Company number: 11021132
Registered/business address: 2 Mill Cottage, Billingford Road, North Elmham, Dereham, Norfolk, NR20 5HN, United Kingdom
Email: info@guttervacuumsystems.co.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)1603 905501

This policy explains how we collect, use, disclose and protect personal information when you visit our website, contact us, request a quotation, place an order, create an account, apply for finance, interact with us on social media, visit our premises or otherwise deal with us.

2. The personal information we collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

  • Identity and contact details, such as your name, business name, job title, billing and delivery addresses, email address and telephone number.
  • Order and transaction details, including products purchased, quotations, order history, invoices, delivery details, refunds and warranty or repair information.
  • Payment information. Payments are normally handled by our payment service providers. We do not ordinarily receive or store your full payment-card details, although we receive payment status, transaction references and limited payment information.
  • Account information, such as login details, saved addresses and account preferences.
  • Communications, including emails, enquiry forms, messages, telephone notes and recordings, WhatsApp or social-media messages, complaints, reviews and customer-service correspondence.
  • Technical and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device information, cookie identifiers, pages viewed, referring pages and how you use our website.
  • Marketing preferences, including whether you have agreed to receive marketing and how you interact with our marketing communications.
  • Finance-application information. If you choose a third-party finance option, the finance provider will collect and use information under its own privacy policy. We may receive limited information about the application and whether it was accepted.
  • Images and recordings, where relevant, such as CCTV footage at our premises or photographs and video supplied in connection with technical support, warranty claims, reviews or promotional content.
  • Information from other sources, including delivery providers, payment and finance providers, fraud-prevention services, social-media platforms, publicly available business sources and another person acting on your behalf.

Please do not send us special-category information, such as medical information, unless it is necessary and we have asked you to provide it.

3. How and why we use personal information

UK data-protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for each use of personal information.

What we use information for

Types of information

Lawful basis

To respond to enquiries, provide quotations and take steps requested before a contract

Identity, contact and communications information

Contract or steps before entering a contract; legitimate interests in responding to business enquiries

To process and deliver orders, take payment, provide account functions, handle returns, repairs and warranties, and provide customer support

Identity, contact, order, transaction, payment, account and communications information

Performance of a contract; legitimate interests in serving business customers and administering our operations

To maintain financial, tax and company records

Identity, contact, order, transaction and payment information

Legal obligation

To prevent fraud, misuse and security incidents, verify transactions and protect our legal rights

Identity, contact, payment, transaction, account, technical and communications information

Legitimate interests in protecting customers, our business and our systems; legal obligation where applicable

To operate, secure, troubleshoot and improve our website, products, services and customer experience

Technical, usage, order, communications and feedback information

Legitimate interests; consent where required for non-essential cookies or similar technology

To send service messages, safety notices, recall information and important updates about an order or product

Identity, contact, order and communications information

Performance of a contract; legal obligation; legitimate interests in product safety and customer service

To record telephone calls for staff training, quality monitoring, confirming what was discussed, handling complaints or disputes, and protecting customers and our business

Identity, contact, voice, call details and information discussed during the call

Legitimate interests in training staff, maintaining service standards, keeping accurate records and protecting legal rights; legal obligation where applicable

To send email, SMS, WhatsApp or similar direct marketing about relevant products, services and offers

Identity, contact, order, marketing-preference and engagement information

Consent where required; otherwise legitimate interests and the applicable business-to-business or existing-customer marketing rules. You can opt out at any time

To advertise and measure campaigns on search engines and social-media platforms

Technical, usage and marketing information

Consent where required for advertising cookies or similar technology; legitimate interests where the law permits

To manage reviews, competitions, social-media interactions and promotional content

Identity, contact, communications, social-media, image and marketing information

Consent where appropriate; performance of competition terms; legitimate interests in promoting and improving our business

To establish, exercise or defend legal claims and respond to regulators or law-enforcement bodies

Relevant information from the categories above

Legal obligation; legitimate interests in protecting our legal rights

To monitor security at our premises

CCTV images and related incident information

Legitimate interests in protecting people, property and stock and investigating incidents

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider whether the use is necessary and balance our interests against your rights and reasonable expectations. You may ask us for more information about that assessment.

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal will not affect processing already carried out lawfully.

4. If you do not provide information

Some information is required so that we can provide a quotation, accept payment, deliver an order or meet our legal obligations. If you do not provide it, we may be unable to supply the requested product or service. Other information, including most marketing information, is optional.

5. Marketing

We may send marketing where you have consented or where the law otherwise permits us to do so, including in appropriate cases where you have bought or enquired about similar products or where we contact a corporate business address.

Every electronic marketing message will provide an unsubscribe method where required. You can also opt out by emailing info@guttervacuumsystems.co.uk. We may retain a minimal suppression record so that we can respect your opt-out.

Opting out of marketing will not stop essential messages about your orders, warranty matters, safety notices, recalls or other service communications.

6. Cookies and similar technologies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. Some are strictly necessary for functions such as the shopping basket, checkout, security and remembering privacy choices. With your permission, we may also use analytics, preference and advertising technologies to understand website use, improve our services, measure campaigns and show relevant advertising.

Non-essential cookies and similar technologies will not be set before consent where consent is legally required. You can accept, reject or change your choices through the cookie controls on our website. For details of the individual technologies, providers, purposes and lifespans, please see our Cookie Policy or cookie-preference centre.

7. Who we share personal information with

We may share relevant information with:

  • our ecommerce platform, website host, IT, cloud-storage, email, communications and customer-management suppliers;
  • payment processors, banks and fraud-prevention providers;
  • finance providers, where you choose to apply for finance;
  • couriers, postal services, freight forwarders, customs agents and delivery partners;
  • manufacturers, engineers and service providers where needed for technical support, repair or warranty services;
  • accountants, auditors, insurers, professional advisers and debt-recovery providers;
  • analytics, advertising, search-engine and social-media providers, subject to your cookie choices and applicable law;
  • public authorities, regulators, law-enforcement bodies, courts or other parties where disclosure is required by law or is necessary to protect legal rights, safety or security; and
  • a prospective buyer, seller or adviser in connection with a merger, sale, restructuring or transfer of all or part of our business, subject to appropriate confidentiality safeguards.

We require service providers acting on our behalf to protect personal information and use it only for the agreed purpose. Some organisations, such as payment providers, finance providers, couriers and social-media platforms, may also act as independent controllers under their own privacy policies.

We do not sell personal information.

8. International transfers

Some of our technology, payment, delivery, analytics, advertising or communications providers may process personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we use a lawful transfer mechanism where required. This may include transfer to a country covered by UK adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to approved standard contractual clauses, or another legally permitted safeguard. You may contact us for more information about the safeguards relevant to your information.

9. How long we keep personal information

We keep information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including legal, accounting, tax, safety and dispute-resolution requirements. Our usual retention approach is:

  • Order, invoice, payment and core customer records: generally six years after the end of the relevant financial year or the end of the customer relationship, as appropriate.
  • Quotation and enquiry records that do not lead to an order: generally up to two years after the last meaningful contact.
  • Warranty, repair, complaint and technical-support records: for the relevant warranty or support period and then generally up to six years where needed to deal with claims or recurring product issues.
  • Marketing records: until you opt out or the information is no longer useful for the purpose, with a minimal suppression record retained to honour your preference.
  • Call recordings: normally for up to six years a recording is required for longer to investigate a complaint, resolve a dispute, establish or defend a legal claim, or meet a legal requirement.
  • Cookie and online identifiers: for the periods shown in our Cookie Policy or cookie-preference centre.
  • CCTV: normally no longer than 30 days, unless footage is needed to investigate an incident, handle a claim or meet a legal requirement.

We may keep information longer where litigation, a regulatory enquiry, a product-safety matter or another legal requirement makes this necessary. We may retain anonymised information that no longer identifies an individual.

10. How we protect information

We use appropriate organisational and technical measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, loss or destruction. These include access controls, account security, staff procedures, supplier checks, backups and appropriate system protections.

No internet transmission or storage system is completely secure. You are responsible for keeping your account password confidential and should contact us promptly if you believe your account or information has been compromised.

11. Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:

  • ask for access to your personal information;
  • ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
  • ask us to erase information;
  • ask us to restrict how information is used;
  • object to processing based on legitimate interests;
  • object at any time to the use of your information for direct marketing;
  • receive certain information in a portable format;
  • withdraw consent where processing is based on consent; and
  • ask for human review of a decision based solely on automated processing where it produces legal or similarly significant effects.

These rights are not absolute and may not apply in every case. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. We normally respond within one month and do not charge a fee, although the law permits a reasonable fee or refusal in limited circumstances.

To exercise a right, email info@guttervacuumsystems.co.uk or write to us at the address in section 1.

You have an absolute right to object to direct marketing.

12. Automated decision-making

We do not currently use personal information to make solely automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you. A third-party finance provider may make its own credit or eligibility decisions; please refer to that provider’s privacy information.

13. Children

Our website and products are intended for business customers and adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children for marketing purposes. If you believe a child has provided personal information to us inappropriately, please contact us.

14. Third-party websites and social media

Our website may link to websites, payment services, finance providers and social-media platforms operated by others. Those organisations control their own processing, and their privacy policies apply when you use their services. We are not responsible for their privacy practices.

15. Complaints

Please contact us first if you have a concern so that we can try to resolve it.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection:

Website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
Telephone: 0303 123 1113

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our services, suppliers or legal obligations change. The latest version will be published on this page and identified by the “last updated” date. Where a change materially affects how we use personal information, we will take reasonable steps to bring it to the attention of affected individuals.

Contact

Should you have any questions about our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, or if you would like to exercise any of the rights available to you, please call +44 1603 905501 or email us at info@guttervacuumsystems.co.uk or contact us at Gutter Vacuum Systems Ltd, 2 Mill Cottage, Billingford Road,, North Elmham, Dereham, Norfolk NR20 5HN, United Kingdom. For the purpose of applicable data protection laws, we are the data controller of your personal information.