Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect personal information when you visit this website, make an enquiry or use our services.

1. Who we are

Spore Shield provides damp and mould inspection, remediation and prevention services.

For data protection purposes, Spore Shield is responsible for the personal information described in this Privacy Policy, unless stated otherwise.

Our current business and contact details are set out in the Our details section at the end of this policy.

2. Information we may collect

The information we collect depends on how you interact with Spore Shield.

Enquiry information

When you make an enquiry through this website, by email, by telephone or by another communication method, we may collect information such as:

• your name;
• email address;
• telephone number;
• property address, postcode or location;
• information about the damp, mould, moisture or property problem you are contacting us about;
• information about the property and circumstances relevant to your enquiry;
• messages and correspondence you send to us; and
• any other information you choose to provide that is relevant to your enquiry.

We ask you not to provide personal information that is not reasonably necessary for us to understand or respond to your enquiry.

Photographs

You may choose to upload photographs as part of an enquiry to help Spore Shield understand the condition of the property.

Those photographs may occasionally contain personal information unintentionally, such as:

• people;
• personal belongings;
• documents;
• photographs or artwork;
• vehicle registrations; or
• identifiable parts of a home or property.

Please check photographs before uploading them and avoid including unnecessary personal information.

Photographs submitted through the enquiry form are stored privately. They are not placed in the public website Media library and are not intended to be publicly accessible.

If you upload a photograph but do not go on to submit the enquiry, that photograph is temporary. It is automatically deleted after approximately 24 hours.

Once your enquiry is submitted, its photographs are used to assess and respond to that enquiry and any related service request. When an enquiry is closed, its photographs are kept for up to 90 days after closure and are then automatically deleted. Deleting the photographs does not delete the enquiry record itself — see "Enquiry and customer records" below for how long that is kept.

If a closed enquiry is reopened before its photographs are deleted, they are kept for as long as the enquiry remains open; if it is closed again later, a new 90-day period begins from that later closure.

Enquiry and customer records

When we handle an enquiry, we may create and retain operational records relating to it.

These may include:

• the status of the enquiry;
• dates and times of significant actions;
• internal notes;
• records of communications;
• records of appointments, quotations or work where applicable; and
• a history of significant changes or actions relating to the enquiry.

This information helps Spore Shield provide a consistent service, understand what has happened previously and maintain appropriate business records.

Technical website information

When you use this website, limited technical information may be processed automatically by our website and infrastructure providers in order to deliver, operate and protect the website.

This may include information such as:

• IP address;
• browser or device information;
• request and server-log information;
• date and time of requests; and
• security-related information.

We do not currently use this website for behavioural advertising, automated profiling or marketing tracking.

If that changes in future, this Privacy Policy will be updated to explain the additional processing.

Website chat

This website has an optional chat assistant (“Ask the owl”) that answers general questions about damp, mould and our services. If you use it, we keep a record of the conversation: the questions you type, the answers given, the page you started the chat on, and the date and time.

Please do not include personal information, such as your name, address, email address or telephone number, in the chat. If you would like us to contact you, please use the enquiry form or telephone us instead.

The answers are produced by an artificial intelligence service provided by Anthropic. Your question, together with the earlier messages in the same chat, is sent to Anthropic so that an answer can be produced. The assistant only uses information we publish on this website. It cannot see your enquiries or any other records we hold about you.

We use chat records to answer your questions, to see which questions our website does not yet answer well so that we can improve it, and to prevent misuse. To limit misuse, we also keep a code derived from your IP address that changes every day and cannot be turned back into the IP address. We do not store the IP address itself.

Chat records are kept for 12 months and are then deleted automatically. Your browser keeps a copy of your current chat until you close the tab.

3. How we use your personal information

Spore Shield may use your personal information to:

• receive and manage enquiries;
• contact you about an enquiry;
• understand the nature of a damp, mould or moisture problem;
• decide whether and how we may be able to assist;
• arrange inspections, surveys, visits or appointments;
• prepare quotations or proposals;
• provide services you have asked us to provide;
• maintain appropriate records of enquiries and work;
• manage customer service matters;
• answer questions asked through the website chat and improve the information on our website;
• deal with questions, complaints or disputes;
• maintain an operational history of enquiries;
• operate and protect our website and business systems;
• prevent spam, misuse, fraud or other security problems;
• meet legal, accounting, tax, insurance or regulatory obligations; and
• establish, exercise or defend legal claims where necessary.

Information submitted through an ordinary service enquiry is not used to sign you up automatically to unrelated marketing communications.

4. Our lawful bases for using personal information

UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for processing personal information.

The lawful basis we rely on depends on why the information is being used.

Steps before entering into a contract

We may process your information where you ask Spore Shield to:

• consider your enquiry;
• provide information;
• assess your requirements;
• arrange a survey or inspection;
• prepare a quotation; or
• take other steps before you decide whether to purchase a service.

Performance of a contract

If you engage Spore Shield to provide services, we may process information where it is necessary to perform the agreement with you.

Legitimate interests

We may process information where it is reasonably necessary for the legitimate operation of our business.

This may include:

• managing enquiries and customer relationships;
• answering questions asked through the website chat and improving our website information;
• maintaining appropriate business records;
• protecting our website and systems;
• improving operational processes;
• handling complaints or disputes; and
• establishing or defending legal claims.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider whether our interests are outweighed by your rights and interests.

Legal obligations

We may process or retain information where this is necessary to comply with legal, regulatory, accounting, tax or other obligations that apply to us.

Consent

We will only rely on consent where consent is genuinely the appropriate lawful basis for a particular activity.

Submitting an ordinary enquiry does not mean that all processing of your information is based on consent.

5. Who we may share information with

Spore Shield does not sell your personal information.

We may share personal information with organisations that provide services necessary for the operation of our website or business.

These may include providers of:

• website hosting;
• cloud infrastructure;
• database services;
• secure file storage;
• email delivery;
• artificial intelligence services used by the website chat;
• IT and website support;
• accounting;
• insurance;
• legal or professional advice; and
• contractors or service providers involved in providing services to you, where appropriate.

The website currently uses infrastructure and services provided by:

• Vercel for website hosting and storage infrastructure;
• Neon for database infrastructure;
• Resend for email delivery; and
• Anthropic for producing answers in the website chat.

We may also disclose information where required or permitted by law, regulation, court order or another lawful authority.

We only intend to provide service providers with information that is reasonably necessary for the service they perform.

6. International transfers

Some technology providers used by Spore Shield may process or store information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that an appropriate lawful transfer mechanism and safeguards are in place where required by UK data protection law.

7. How long we keep information

We do not intend to keep personal information indefinitely simply because it has been collected.

We retain information for as long as it is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.

When deciding how long information should be retained, we may consider:

• whether an enquiry results in paid work;
• whether further contact is reasonably expected;
• the nature of any services provided;
• accounting, tax or insurance requirements;
• legal limitation periods;
• complaints or disputes;
• the need to establish or defend legal claims;
• the sensitivity of the information; and
• the amount and type of information involved.

Enquiries that do not result in work will normally be removed when they are no longer reasonably required for customer service, business administration or legitimate follow-up.

Records associated with completed work may need to be kept for longer because of contractual, accounting, insurance or legal requirements.

Photographs are handled on their own, shorter timescale, described in the "Photographs" section above: an unsubmitted photograph is deleted after approximately 24 hours, and a closed enquiry's photographs are deleted after up to 90 days. Deleting photographs does not delete the enquiry record or other business records associated with it — those continue to be retained as described in this section.

Website chat records are kept for 12 months and are then deleted automatically, as described in the “Website chat” section above.

Spore Shield intends to adopt a more detailed formal retention schedule as its operational processes develop. This policy will be updated when specific retention periods are formally established.

8. How we protect your information

Spore Shield takes reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect personal information against:

• unauthorised access;
• loss;
• misuse;
• alteration; and
• inappropriate disclosure.

Photographs submitted through the website enquiry system are stored separately from public website images and are made available to authorised staff through authenticated administrative access.

The website is also protected by security measures intended to reduce automated abuse and unauthorised access.

No internet-based system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we design our systems to avoid unnecessary exposure of personal information.

9. Your data protection rights

Depending on the circumstances and the lawful basis being relied upon, you may have rights relating to your personal information.

These may include the right to:

Access

You can ask for a copy of personal information we hold about you.

Rectification

You can ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or complete information that is incomplete.

Erasure

You may have the right to ask us to delete your personal information in certain circumstances.

Restriction

You may have the right to ask us to restrict the way we use your personal information in certain circumstances.

Objection

You may have the right to object to certain processing of your personal information, particularly where we are relying on legitimate interests.

If you wish to object to the way Spore Shield is using your personal information, please contact us using the details below.

Data portability

Where the legal requirements for data portability are met, you may have the right to receive certain personal information in a portable format or ask us to transfer it to another organisation.

Withdrawal of consent

Where we are relying specifically on your consent, you may withdraw that consent.

Withdrawing consent does not make earlier processing unlawful.

Not every data protection right applies in every circumstance.

We may also need to verify your identity before responding to a request involving personal information.

10. Complaints

If you have a concern about how Spore Shield uses your personal information, please contact us first so that we can investigate the matter.

You also have the right to raise a concern with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator.

11. Third-party websites

This website may contain links to websites operated by other organisations.

Spore Shield is not responsible for the privacy practices, security or content of third-party websites.

You should review the privacy information provided by those organisations before supplying personal information to them.

12. Cookies, analytics and marketing technology

This website may use cookies or similar technologies that are strictly necessary for the website or its underlying services to function.

We do not currently use behavioural advertising, advertising profiling or marketing tracking technologies on this website.

We also do not currently use enquiry information to enrol people automatically into marketing campaigns.

If we introduce analytics, advertising, marketing cookies, tracking pixels or similar technology in future, we will update this policy and introduce any additional notices or consent controls required at that time.

13. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when:

• our business changes;
• the services we provide change;
• our website or technology changes;
• our data-processing activities change; or
• our legal or regulatory obligations change.

The latest version will always be published on this page.

The "Last updated" date at the top of this policy indicates when the published version was last materially updated.

14. Our details

Current contact and business details for Spore Shield are set out below.