Privacy notice
This notice explains how we use personal information when you visit our website, email us, book a free IT health check, or when we contact a business about our services. It is written for people acting in a work capacity.
Controller: Valkyrie IT Services Ltd. Contact: alex.hopkins@valk-it.co.uk. We do not currently have a data protection officer. You can complain to us at the same address, or to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
1. What we collect
We only collect what we need to reply, qualify an enquiry, or contact a relevant person at a UK business about managed IT support.
| Source | What we hold |
|---|---|
| Website form | Name, company, email, optional phone number, and the note you type. The form opens your email app and sends the message to us. We do not store form submissions on the website. |
| Email and phone | Anything you send to alex.hopkins@valk-it.co.uk, plus our replies, in our IONOS mailbox. |
| B2B research | Published work details of a decision-maker at a UK company: name, job title, work email, work phone if published, company name, Companies House number, and a short note on why the business may need IT support. We do not collect personal or home email addresses. |
| Website technical data | The site does not use analytics, advertising cookies, or tracking pixels. Your browser may still send your IP address to our host in ordinary access logs. Fonts are stored on our own site. |
2. Why we use it, and the lawful basis
| Purpose | Lawful basis (UK GDPR Article 6) |
|---|---|
| Answer an enquiry or book a free IT health check | Steps toward a contract, if you asked us to (Article 6(1)(b)). Otherwise our legitimate interests in responding to business enquiries (Article 6(1)(f)). |
| Provide IT services if you become a client | Performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b)), and our legitimate interests in running and securing the service (Article 6(1)(f)). |
| Find relevant UK companies and email a published work contact about a free IT health check | Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)): telling an appropriate person at a corporate subscriber about a relevant B2B service. We do not rely on this for sole traders or ordinary partnerships unless they have opted in or the PECR soft opt-in applies. |
| Keep a suppression / do-not-contact list | Legitimate interests, and our legal obligation to honour an objection to direct marketing (Article 6(1)(c) and (f); UK GDPR Article 21(2)). |
| Accounts, tax, and legal claims | Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)) and legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)). |
Direct marketing is a recognised example of a legitimate interest. We have considered the impact on people in a work context and judged that a short, identified B2B email about a free health check, with a clear opt-out, is proportionate. You can object at any time. If you object to direct marketing we will stop, no questions asked.
3. Who we share it with
We do not sell personal information. We do not run advertising. We use service providers who process information for us:
- IONOS — email hosting and DNS for valk-it.co.uk (mailbox for enquiries and outreach).
- Cloudflare Pages — website hosting. The site itself does not keep form data.
We may also share information if the law requires it, or with professional advisers under confidentiality (for example an accountant or solicitor).
IONOS is in the UK / European Economic Area. Cloudflare may process information outside the United Kingdom (including in the United States and other locations where Cloudflare operates). Where a transfer outside the UK is not covered by UK adequacy regulations, we rely on the provider’s UK-approved transfer tools (such as the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses) or on the transfer being necessary to reply to you. Ask us if you want more detail on the safeguards.
4. How long we keep it
- Enquiries and unsuccessful leads (including health-check requests that do not become a client, and B2B research records): 24 months after last meaningful contact, then we delete or anonymise them. If you object to marketing we keep only enough on a suppression list to make sure we do not contact you again.
- Clients and contracts: for the life of the contract and then for up to 6 years, which is the usual UK limitation period for contractual claims, unless a longer period is required for tax or other law.
- Email in the mailbox: we review the inbox and delete or file messages in line with the periods above.
5. B2B email (PECR)
UK electronic-mail marketing rules treat limited companies and LLPs as corporate subscribers. We may email a work address at those organisations without prior consent, but we must identify ourselves, give a valid address to opt out, and still comply with the UK GDPR if the message uses personal data (for example jane.smith@company.co.uk).
Sole traders and some partnerships are treated as individuals. We will not send them marketing email unless they have consented or the PECR “soft opt-in” applies (we obtained the details in the course of a sale or negotiations, we market similar services, and we offered an opt-out at collection and in every message).
Every marketing email from us will name Valkyrie IT Services Ltd and tell you how to opt out. Reply “unsubscribe” or write to alex.hopkins@valk-it.co.uk. We will add you to our suppression list and will not email you for marketing again.
6. Cookies and similar technologies
We do not set analytics, advertising, or social-media cookies, and we do not use tracking pixels. We do not need a cookie banner while that remains true.
If we later use non-essential storage or access technologies (for example analytics cookies that identify users, or email tracking pixels), we will tell you first and get consent unless a PECR exception applies.
7. Your rights
You can ask us to access, correct, erase, or restrict your personal information, and to object to our using it. You also have rights of data portability in some cases. The right to object to direct marketing is absolute: if you object, we stop.
Email alex.hopkins@valk-it.co.uk. We will respond without undue delay and within one month. You can also complain to us at that address (we will acknowledge a data-protection complaint within 30 days) or to the ICO: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
We do not use automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
8. If we look after a client’s systems
If you later appoint us as your IT provider, we will usually be a processor of personal data on your systems (staff emails, backups, helpdesk tickets, and similar). That processing will be covered by a written contract with the Article 28 terms the UK GDPR requires, not by this notice alone. This notice covers how we use information as a controller for our own sales, marketing, and website.