Privacy policy

This privacy policy applies to personal information processed by or on behalf of Flexmetallic Industries Limited.

Flexmetallic Industries Ltd is strongly committed to protecting personal data.

This privacy policy describes why and how we collect and use personal data and provides information about individuals’ rights. It applies to personal data provided to us, both by individuals themselves and by others. We may use personal data provided to us for any of the purposes described in this privacy policy or as otherwise stated at the point of collection.

Personal data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable living person. Flexmetallic Industries Ltd processes personal data for numerous purposes, and the means of collection, lawful basis of processing, use, disclosure, and retention periods for each purpose may differ.

When collecting and using personal data, our policy is to be transparent about why and how we process personal data.

Who we are.

Flexmetallic Industries Ltd designs and manufactures, bespoke hose assemblies for transporting materials for food, beverage, pharmaceuticals, water, air, fuels, and chemicals and much more.

We are regulated under the data protection and privacy laws which apply across the European Union (including those in the United Kingdom), and we are responsible as a ‘Controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.

The personal information that we collect and use.

We collect, store, and use the following personal information when you provide it to us:

Name and Contact Data: We collect your first and last name, email address, postal address, phone number, job title or role, company name, and / or other similar contact data.

Credentials: We may collect usernames, password hints and/or other similar security information for the authentication and access to accounts or services.

Device and Usage Data: We collect data about how you and your devices interact with our website and the products (by amongst other things cookies and page tagging techniques), which might include, amongst other things, your IP address and /or details of which version of web browsers you use.

Comments and Feedback:

We retain information when you make enquiries or provide comments or feedback on our services. We collect personal data when an individual contacts us with a question, complaint, comment, or feedback (such as name, contact details and contents of the communication). In these cases, the individual is in control of the personal data shared with us and we will only use the data for the purpose of responding to the communication.

We are continually looking for ways to help our customers and improve our business and services. Where agreed with our customers, we may use information that we receive while providing professional services for other lawful purposes, including analysis to better understand a particular issue, industry, or sector, provide insights back to our customers, to improve our business, service delivery and offerings and to develop new technologies and offerings.

If the information we receive while providing professional services contains personal data, we will de-identify the data prior to using the information for these purposes.

Customer Personal Data:

While providing professional services to you, you may request that we process the personal data of your employees and your customers.

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and for the following reasons:

• Internal record keeping
• To improve our products and services
• To send promotional emails about our services and any other information that we think may be of interest to you using the email address that you have provided.
• From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes, which may do through email, phone, or fax. This information may help us to customise our website according to your interests.

Business contacts:

Flexmetallic Industries Ltd may process personal data about contacts (existing, former, and potential Flexmetallic customers and/or individuals associated with them) using a customer relationship management system.

The collection of personal data about contacts and the addition of that personal data to the CRM is initiated by a Flexmetallic user and will include name, company name, contact title, phone number, email, and any other business contact details. In addition, CRM may collect data from a Flexmetallic email (sender name, recipient name, date, and time) and calendar (organiser name, participant name, date, and time of event) systems concerning interactions between Flexmetallic users and contacts or third parties.

What we use this personal data for:

Personal data relating to business contacts may be visible to and used by Flexmetallic users to learn more about an account, customer, or opportunity they have an interest in, and may be used for the following purposes:

• Administering, managing, and developing our businesses and services
• Providing information about us and our range of services
• Making contact information available to Flexmetallic users
• Identifying customers/contacts with similar needs
• Describing the nature of a contact’s relationship with Flexmetallic

Flexmetallic does not sell or otherwise release personal data contained in the CRM to third parties for the purpose of allowing them to market their products and services without consent from individuals to do so.

Business Contact Data retention:

Personal data will be retained on the Flexmetallic CRM for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out above (e.g. for as long as we have, or need to keep a record of, a relationship with a business contact).

Employees:

We collect personal data concerning our own employees as part of the administration, management, and promotion of our business activities. Employees should refer to the Company Handbook for information on why and how personal data is collected and processed.

Customer Data:

We collect only the personal data necessary for agreed purposes and contractual agreements and we ask our customers to only share personal data where it is strictly needed for those purposes. Should we need to process personal data to provide professional services, we ask our customers to provide the necessary information to the data subjects regarding its use. Our customers may use relevant sections of this privacy policy or refer data subjects to this privacy policy if they consider it appropriate to do so. Generally, we collect personal data from our customers or from third parties acting on the instructions of the relevant customer.

What we use this personal data for:

We use personal data for the following purposes:

Providing Professional Services

We provide a diverse range of products and some of these require us to process personal data to provide advice and deliverables for all the products that we provide.

Information collected from other sources.

Occasionally we may receive personal information from third party sources, and these may include:

• Data brokers who supplement our marketing database
• Publicly available sources such as open government databases or other data in the public domain and social media

Administering, managing, and developing our businesses and services

We process personal data to run our business, and this includes:

• Managing our relationship with customers and potential customers
• Managing our relationship with our suppliers and contractors
• Developing our businesses and services (such as identifying customer needs and improvements in the delivery of our services
• Maintaining and using IT systems
• Hosting or facilitating the hosting of events and marketing forums.
• Administering and managing our website and systems and applications

Security, quality, and risk management activities

We have security measures in place to protect our and our customers’ information (including personal data), which involve detecting, investigating, and resolving security threats.

Personal data may be processed as part of the security monitoring that we undertake; for example, automated scans to identify harmful emails.

We monitor the services provided to customers for quality purposes, which may involve processing personal our services and manage risks in relation to customer engagements.

We collect and hold data stored on the relevant customer file and we have policies and procedures in place to monitor the quality of personal data as part of our customer engagement and acceptance processes. As part of this we may undertake searches using publicly available sources (such as internet searches and credit checks) to check that there are no issues that would prevent us from working with a particular customer.

Providing our customers with information about us and our range of services

Unless we are asked not to, we use customer business contact details to provide information that we think will be of interest about us and our products. For example, industry updates and insights, other products that may be relevant and invites to events.

Complying with any requirement of law, regulation, or a professional body

As with any provider of products, we are subject to legal, regulatory, and professional obligations. We need to keep certain records to demonstrate that our products are provided in compliance with those obligations and those records may contain personal data.

Data retention

We retain the personal data processed by us for as long as is considered necessary for the purpose for which it was collected (including as required by applicable law or regulation).

Personal data may be held for longer periods where extended retention periods are required by law or regulation and to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.

In the absence of specific legal, regulatory, or contractual requirements, our baseline retention period for records and other documentary evidence created in the provision of services is 8 years.

Suppliers and contractors: We collect and process personal data about our suppliers (including subcontractors and individuals associated with our suppliers and subcontractors) to manage the relationship, contract, to receive services from our suppliers and, where relevant, to provide products to our customers.

What we use this personal data for: We use personal data for the following purposes:

Receiving services: We process personal data in relation to our suppliers and their staff as necessary to receive the services. For example, where a supplier is providing us with facilities management or other outsourced services, we will process personal data about those individuals that are providing services to us.

Providing products to customers: Where a supplier is helping us to deliver products to our customers, we process personal data about the individuals involved in providing the services to administer and manage our relationship with the supplier and the relevant individuals and to provide such services to our customers.

Monitoring suppliers: We have processes and procedures in place to monitor the quality of our products and manage the risks in relation to our suppliers. We collect and hold personal data as part of our supplier management process, and we monitor the services that they provide for quality purposes. This may involve processing personal data.

Visitors to our offices: CCTV operates on the perimeter and main reception of the building complex and images captured are securely stored and only accessed on a need to know by Flexmetallic managers regarding an incident. Signs are clearly visible that CCTV is in operation.

All visitors are required to sign into the visitors’ book in the building’s main reception area and this information is securely stored by the proprietor and accessible by authorised personnel only.

Visitors to our website: Visitors to our website are generally in control of the personal data shared with us. We may capture limited personal data automatically via the use of cookies on our website. We receive personal data, such as name, title, company address, email address, and telephone and fax numbers, from website visitors; for example, when an individual submits a contact request. Visitors are also able to send an email to us through the website. Their messages will contain the company name, contact details, and email address, as well as any additional information the user may wish to include in the message.

We ask that you do not provide sensitive information (such as race or ethnic origin; political opinions; religious or philosophical beliefs; trade union membership; physical or mental health; genetic data; biometric data; sexual life or sexual orientation; and, criminal records) to us when using our website; if you choose to provide sensitive information to us for any reason, the act of doing so constitutes your explicit consent for us to collect and use that information in the ways described in this privacy policy or as described at the point where you choose to disclose this information.

Cookies

We use small text files called ‘cookies’ which are placed on your hard drive to assist in personalising and enriching your browsing experience by displaying content that is more likely to be relevant and of interest to you. The use of cookies is now a standard operating procedure for most websites. However, if you are uncomfortable with the use of cookies, most browsers now permit users to opt-out of receiving them. You need to accept cookies whilst browsing our website. You may find other functionality in the website impaired if you disable cookies. After termination of the visit to our site, you can always delete the cookies from your system if you wish.

When a visitor provides personal data to us, we will use it for the purposes for which it was provided to us as stated at point of collection (or as obvious from the context of the collection). Typically, personal data is collected to:

• Register for certain areas of the site.
• Subscribe to updates.
• Enquire for further information.
• Distribute requested reference materials.
• Submit curriculum vitae.
• Monitor and enforce compliance with our terms and conditions for use of our website.
• Administer and manage our website, including confirming, authenticating identity, and preventing unauthorised access to restricted areas, premium content or other services limited to registered users; and
• Aggregate data for website analytics and

Unless we are asked not to, we may also use your data to contact you with information about Flexmetallic products, and other information which may be of interest to you. Should visitors wish their data to be removed, the individual may contact us by email.

Our website does not collect or compile personal data for the dissemination or sale to outside parties for consumer marketing purposes or host mailings on behalf of third parties.

Personal data collected via our websites will be retained by us for as long as it is necessary (e.g. for as long as we have a relationship with the relevant individual).

Links to other websites: Our website may contain links to a third-party website. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such third-party websites.

Who we share your personal information with: We may share personal data with suppliers working on our behalf whom we have hired to provide us with assistance to protect and secure our systems and services.

In all cases such companies are required to abide by our privacy and security requirements and are prohibited from using personal data received from use for any other reason.

We will share personal information with law enforcement or other authorities if required by applicable law, or to respond to a valid legal process.

Keeping your information secure: We are committed to protecting the security of personal date. ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resilience of our processing systems. We also have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorised way.

We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

Transfer of data: We will only share personal data with others when we are legally permitted to do or if this is contractual. When we share data with others, we put contractual arrangements and security mechanisms in place to protect the data and to comply with our data protection, confidentiality, and security standards.

We have taken steps to ensure all personal data is provided with adequate protection and that all transfers of personal data outside the EU are done lawfully. Where we transfer personal data outside of the EU to a country not determined by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data, the transfers will be under an agreement which covers the EU requirements for the transfer of personal data outside the EU, such as the European Commission approved standard contractual clauses.

Personal data held by us may be transferred to:

• Auditors and other professional advisers
• Law enforcement or other government and regulatory agencies or to other third parties as required by, and in accordance with, applicable law or regulation.

Occasionally, we may receive requests from third parties with authority to obtain disclosure of personal data, such as to check that we are complying with applicable law and regulation, to investigate an alleged crime, to establish, exercise or defend legal rights. We will only fulfil requests for personal data where we are permitted to do so in accordance with applicable law or regulation.

Changes to this privacy policy

This privacy policy will be reviewed on a regular basis and was last updated on the 30^th  of May 2024.

How to contact us: Please contact Flexmetallic by email of the contact information on the company web site.

Individuals’ rights: Individuals have certain rights over their personal data and data controllers are responsible for fulfilling these rights. Where we decide how and why personal data is processed, we are a data controller and include further information about the rights that individuals have and how to exercise them below.

Access to personal data: You have a right of access to personal data held by us as a data controller. This right may be exercised by emailing us at Flexmetallic.

We may charge for a request for access in accordance with applicable law. We will aim to respond to any requests for information promptly, and in any event within the legally required time limits (currently 40 days).

Amendment of personal data: To update personal data submitted to us, you may email us at Flexmetallic or, where appropriate, contact us via the relevant website contact page.

When practically possible, once we are informed that any personal data processed by us is no longer accurate, we will make corrections (where appropriate) based on your updated information.

Withdrawal of consent: Where we process personal data based on consent, individuals have a right to withdraw consent at any time. We do not generally process personal data based on consent (as we can usually rely on another legal basis). To withdraw consent to our processing of your personal data or to stop receiving an email from Flexmetallic marketing list, please email us at Flexmetallic.

Other data subject rights: This privacy policy is intended to provide information about what personal data we collect about you and how it is used. As well as rights of access and amendment referred to above, individuals may have other rights in relation to the personal data we hold, such as a right to erasure/deletion, to restrict or object to our processing of personal data and the right to data portability. If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please send an email to Flexmetallic.

Complaints:

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern about our use of information, however if you do feel that you need to complain please email Flexmetallic and we will respond to your request. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) (the UK data protection regulator). For further information on your rights and how to complain to the ICO, please refer to the ICO website.