Privacy Policy

Last updated: 3 August 2026

Introduction

Hodgkinson Bennis Limited (“we”, “us”, or “our”) is committed to protecting your personal data and privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your personal information when you use our website, in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We process personal data lawfully, fairly, and transparently, adhering to our responsibilities under these laws. This policy applies to all users of our website (which is intended for UK users) and covers personal data collected through our blog pages, brochure content, contact forms, comments, and other interactions with the site. Please read this policy carefully to understand our practices regarding your information.

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, you can contact us at mark@hodgkinsonbennis.engineering or Unit 10, Spring Street Business Park, Spring Street, Bolton, Greater Manchester BL3 6EH.

Who We Are

We are Hodgkinson Bennis Limited, the operator of hodgkinsonbennis.engineering. For the purposes of data protection law, Hodgkinson Bennis Limited is the “data controller” of any personal information collected on this site. This means we determine the purposes and means of processing your personal data. You can contact the site owner (or data protection contact) at mark@hodgkinsonbennis.engineering or by mail at Unit 10, Spring Street Business Park, Spring Street, Bolton, Greater Manchester BL3 6EH for any privacy-related inquiries or to exercise your data protection rights.

What Personal Data We Collect and Why

We may collect various types of personal data from you, depending on how you interact with our site:

Information You Provide to Us

Contact Form Data: If you fill out a contact or inquiry form on our site, we collect the information you provide, such as your name, email address, phone number (if provided), and the content of your message. We use this information to respond to your inquiry or request. We will not use it for any other purpose unless related to your request.
Comments: When you leave a comment on our blog, we collect the information you enter in the comment form (e.g. your name, email address, and the comment text). In addition, our system may automatically collect your IP address and browser user agent string when you submit a comment to help us detect spam and enhance security. We use the comment information to display your comment on the site and to moderate it if necessary. Your name (and any avatar or profile image you’ve provided, such as via Gravatar) will be visible to other visitors alongside your comment.
Other Voluntary Information: If you provide personal data in any other way on our site – for example, by participating in a survey, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting us via email or social media – we will collect the information you choose to give us (such as your email address or social media handle and any message content). We will use such information for the purpose stated (e.g. to send you the newsletter you requested or to respond to your message) and not for any unrelated purposes.

Information We Collect Automatically

Usage Data & Analytics: When you visit our site, we automatically collect certain technical information about your visit. This includes details like your IP address, browser type and version, device information, referral source, pages you visit, the date/time of your visit, and how long you spend on each page. We collect this information through cookies and similar tracking technologies (explained in the Cookies and Analytics section below). In particular, we use Google Analytics to help us understand how visitors use our website. Google Analytics uses first-party cookies and collects data related to your device and browser, your IP address, and your on-site activities to measure and report statistics about user interactions on our site. This information is generally aggregated and does not directly identify you; it helps us analyze web traffic and improve the content and functionality of our site. (Google may also use this information for its own analytics purposes—see Google’s privacy policy for details on how Google processes Analytics data.)
Cookies and Similar Technologies: Our website uses “cookies,” which are small text files placed on your device, as well as related technologies like web beacons or local storage, to remember your preferences and collect information about how you use our site. Some cookies are necessary for the site to function (for example, to remember your cookie consent choice or to enable certain features), while others are optional analytics or functionality cookies. We describe our use of cookies in more detail in the Cookies and Analytics section of this policy.
Embedded Third-Party Content: If our site includes embedded content from third-party services (such as YouTube videos, social media posts, or maps), those providers may collect data about your interaction with that content through their own cookies or tracking tools. Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if you visited the other website directly. For example, if we embed a YouTube video, YouTube may collect usage data (like your views or clicks) and set its own cookies. We do not receive the personal data that these third parties collect through embedded content, but your interaction with that content is subject to the privacy policies of the respective third-party providers.

Note: We do not knowingly collect any special categories of personal data (such as information about your health, race or ethnicity, political opinions, religious beliefs, etc.) through this website, as it is primarily an informational site. We ask that you refrain from submitting such sensitive information in comments or forms on our site. Our site is not intended to collect data from children under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided personal information on our site, please contact us so we can remove it.

How We Use Your Personal Data

We will only use your personal data for legitimate purposes, and in ways you would reasonably expect in the context of using our website. The main purposes for which we process your information include:

Providing and Improving Our Site: We use your information to operate, maintain, and improve the content and functionality of our website. For instance, if you post a comment, we will display it (after moderation, if applicable) along with your name as provided. We also analyze usage and analytics data to understand how our site is used, to troubleshoot performance issues, and to make improvements to user experience and content relevance.
Communicating with You: If you contact us (for example, by submitting a contact form or sending an email), we will use your contact details and the information you provided to respond to you and address your request or questions. We may also use information from comments or messages to follow up on feedback, resolve issues, or provide customer support. We keep records of our communications with you only as needed for these purposes.
Personalization (if applicable): We might use cookies or similar technologies to remember your preferences and settings to personalize your experience. For example, if our site has the option to remember your name or details for commenting, or to save your preferred language/theme, we would use this data to tailor your experience on future visits.
Security and Abuse Prevention: We process certain data (like IP addresses and browser information) to maintain the security and integrity of our website. This includes using data to detect and prevent fraudulent activities, spam comments, or other misuse of our site. For example, we may block an IP address that is seen attempting to log in to restricted areas or spamming our comment section.
Legal Obligations: In some cases, we may need to process or retain your information to comply with a legal obligation. For instance, if we are required by law to retain records of communications, or if we need to disclose data in response to lawful requests by authorities or court orders, we will do so. We may also use your data to enforce our terms of use or to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims if necessary.
Other Purposes (with Your Consent): If we intend to use your personal data for any purpose that is not covered by the above, we will explain the purpose at the time and, if required, seek your consent. For example, if in the future we want to send you marketing emails about our services or products, we would obtain your consent to use your email for that purpose (and you would have the opportunity to opt out at any time).

We will not use your personal data for any automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. Any analysis we perform (such as reviewing aggregated analytics data) is not used to make decisions about individuals.

Lawful Bases for Processing

Under the UK GDPR, we must have a valid legal basis to process your personal data. We rely on the following lawful bases, depending on the context:

Consent: We will ask for your consent in situations where we are required to do so. For example, we rely on your consent to place non-essential cookies (like analytics cookies) on your device. Likewise, if we collect your email address for a newsletter or marketing communications, we do so based on your consent (which you can withdraw at any time). Posting a comment or submitting a contact form can also be seen as providing consent for us to use the personal data you supplied (e.g. to publish your comment or respond to your inquiry). Where we process data based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time – this will not affect the lawfulness of processing already carried out, but it will mean we stop the specific processing going forward.
Legitimate Interests: We process certain data as necessary for our legitimate interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests. Our “legitimate interests” include maintaining and securing our website, understanding how our site is used (so we can improve it), and communicating with users who have contacted us. For example, it is in our legitimate interest to process data you provide in a contact form in order to reply to you, or to use analytics data to improve our services. When we rely on this basis, we consider any potential impact on you – if we believe your rights or interests would outweigh our legitimate interests, we will not use your data in that way unless we obtain your consent or are otherwise required to by law.
Legal Obligation: We may process personal data when we need to in order to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation. For instance, we might retain certain communications or transaction records to fulfill tax, auditing, or other statutory requirements, or disclose information if required by law (such as in response to a court order or an ICO directive). In such cases, the law is the basis for processing and we will only process the data necessary for compliance.
Contractual Necessity: While our website is primarily informational (and typically does not involve user registrations or online transactions), if you enter into a contract with us or request services from us (for example, if you hire us for a project or purchase something via the site), we would process your personal data as needed to perform that contract or to take steps at your request before entering into the contract. This can include processing your contact details, payment information, or other data directly relevant to providing the service or product you have requested.

If you have questions about the specific lawful basis for any particular processing of your personal data, please feel free to contact us for more information.

Cookies and Analytics

Our site uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience and to collect information about how our site is used. This section explains our use of cookies and your choices.

What Are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files that websites place on your device (computer, smartphone, etc.) when you visit. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information. Cookies can be “first-party” (set by us) or “third-party” (set by other companies such as analytics or embedded content providers). We also may use related technologies like pixel tags (small images or scripts that detect how you interact with a page) or local storage. For simplicity, we refer to all of these as “cookies.”

How We Use Cookies:

Essential Cookies: These cookies are necessary for the basic functioning of our website. They might remember your actions (e.g., items in a shopping cart if our site had e-commerce, or your cookie consent preferences) and enable core features. Without these cookies, certain services on our site may not be available, and the site may not perform as smoothly as intended. Because these cookies are essential for delivering our services, they are used without requiring explicit consent.
Analytics Cookies: We use Google Analytics (a web analytics service provided by Google) to collect statistical information about how our site is used. Google Analytics sets cookies on your browser to gather data such as what pages you visit, how long you stay, how you got to our site, and which links you click. This helps us understand website traffic and user behavior. According to Google’s terms, we are required to disclose our use of Google Analytics and how it collects and processes data. The data Google Analytics collects (via cookies and other means) includes data related to your device/browser, your IP address, and your on-site activities. We have configured Google Analytics in a privacy-friendly manner (for example, we may have enabled IP anonymization so that Google truncates your IP address in the UK/EEA). We use the information from these cookies to compile reports and improve our website – for instance, understanding which blog posts are most popular or detecting if any pages are slow or returning errors. The analytics cookies on our site do not collect personally identifiable information about you, and we do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data for advertising or other purposes. (See Google’s own Privacy Policy and Google Analytics terms for more details.)
Functionality Cookies: In some cases, we may use cookies to enhance site functionality and remember your preferences. For example, if our site has a feature to remember your login details or your preferences (such as text size or language selection), a cookie may be used so you don’t have to re-enter that information each time. These cookies are not strictly necessary, but they make the user experience better.
Third-Party Cookies (Embedded Content): As noted earlier, when we embed content from third-party services (like YouTube, Twitter, etc.), those services may set their own cookies. For example, YouTube may place cookies to track video views and personalize your experience on their platform. Similarly, social media sites might set cookies if you interact with a social sharing button or widget on our site. We do not control these cookies since they are set by the third-party, but we want to make you aware that they may be present when you encounter third-party content on our pages. These cookies might collect data about your browsing on our site and combine it with other information the third party holds about you (for instance, if you’re logged into their service). Please check the privacy and cookie policies of the relevant third-party providers for more information on what data they collect and how you can opt-out.

Cookie Consent:
When you first visit our site, you should see a cookie notice or banner that alerts you to the use of cookies. We endeavor to respect your choices regarding cookies:

For essential cookies, we may not request consent as these are needed for the site to function properly.
For non-essential cookies (like analytics or certain third-party cookies), we will request your consent in accordance with applicable law. For example, our site may present you with the option to “Accept” or “Reject” analytics cookies. By clicking accept, you agree to their use. You can always change your mind and withdraw consent by adjusting your browser settings or using the mechanisms described below.

How to Manage Cookies:
Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings preferences. You can set your browser to refuse all or some cookies, or to prompt you before accepting a cookie. You can also delete cookies that have already been set. However, please note that if you disable or reject certain cookies, some features of our site may not function properly (for example, videos might not play, or preferences might not be saved).

For more information about managing and disabling cookies, you can visit sites like AllAboutCookies.org, which provide browser-specific guides.

Additionally, for Google Analytics, Google provides an opt-out browser add-on to prevent your data from being used by Google Analytics on any website. You can download and install it from Google’s site (the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on).

Do Not Track:
Some browsers have a “Do Not Track” feature that lets you tell websites that you do not want to have your online activities tracked. At this time, our site does not respond to “Do Not Track” signals in a different or special way. However, you can usually still control tracking via the cookie management methods described above.

Embedded Content and Third-Party Links

As mentioned above, our website may incorporate content and features from third parties. This can include: embedded videos (e.g., YouTube or Vimeo players), social media feeds or widgets (e.g., a Twitter timeline or Instagram post embedded in a page), interactive maps (e.g., Google Maps), or links to external websites for additional information or resources.

When you interact with embedded third-party content on our site:

Data Collection by Third Parties: The third-party providing that content (video, post, map, etc.) may collect data about you in the process. For example, if we have a YouTube video embedded, YouTube might collect usage information (such as the fact that you watched the video on our page) and associate it with your YouTube/Google profile if you are logged in. Similarly, a Twitter “like” or “share” button on our page could allow Twitter to know that you visited that page. As noted earlier, embedded content from other websites behaves as if you visited the third-party site directly. These external sites may collect personal data, use cookies or other trackers, and monitor your interaction with that content (including correlating it with any account you may have with them).
Our Responsibility: While we include such content to enhance user experience (for example, to show a relevant video or an interactive map), we do not control the data collection or tracking practices of these third parties. This Privacy Policy does not cover how those third-party sites handle your data. We recommend you review the privacy policies of any third-party service you encounter through our site to understand how they may use your information. For instance, Google’s and YouTube’s privacy policies will explain their data practices for embedded videos; Twitter’s policy will cover data collected through embedded tweets or buttons, and so on. If you do not want these third parties to collect information about you, you may choose not to play the embedded content (e.g., not clicking a play button on a video) or not to interact with the social media plug-ins. Some browser extensions and privacy settings can also block certain third-party content or cookies.
Third-Party Links: Our website may contain links to external websites that are not operated by Hodgkinson Bennis Limited. If you follow a link to an external site (for example, a reference link in a blog post), this Privacy Policy no longer applies, and your browsing on that external site is subject to that site’s own rules and policies. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of third-party websites. We encourage you to exercise caution and read the privacy statements of any other site you visit via links from our site.

In summary, while using our site you may encounter content or links to third parties that operate independently from us. We include these to provide a richer experience or useful information, but please be aware that any personal data you provide to those third parties, or that they collect automatically, is governed by their respective privacy policies.

How We Share Your Data

We treat your personal information with care and confidentiality. We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal data to unrelated third parties for their own marketing or other purposes. However, we do share certain information with third parties in the following circumstances, to run our site and services:

Service Providers (Data Processors): We use trusted third-party companies to help us operate our website and provide our services to you. These third parties act on our behalf and include, for example:
- Website Hosting Providers: who host our website and therefore process data that passes through the site (such as your IP address when you visit, or data submitted through forms) on secure servers.
- Analytics Providers: like Google Analytics, which process usage data and statistics as described in the Cookies and Analytics section. In using Google Analytics, we share (or more accurately, Google collects on our behalf) site usage information. Google acts as a data processor for us, meaning they are contractually obligated to only use the data to provide analytics services and to protect it appropriately.
- Email/Communication Services: if you contact us or we send emails, the messages may go through email service providers which process the data (your email address, content of the email) to deliver the communication. For example, if our website has a contact form, it might send your message via an email service to reach us.
- Content Delivery Networks and Security Services: We may use services that help deliver our site content faster or protect it from attacks (e.g., a CDN or firewall service). In doing so, those services might process your IP address and requests as part of filtering malicious traffic.
- Spam Detection/Moderation: If we use automated spam detection for comments (such as the Akismet service or similar), the information you provide in the comment (including your name, email, IP, and comment text) might be sent to that service purely for spam analysis purposes.
  These service providers are bound by contracts that require them to only use your data for the purposes we specify and to protect your data in line with data protection laws. They cannot use your information for their own purposes. We only share the minimum information necessary for them to perform their functions, and we evaluate our service providers for strong security and privacy practices. If any service provider is located outside the UK, we will ensure data transferred to them is protected in accordance with the “International Data Transfers” section below.
Third-Party Embedded Content: As explained, if you interact with embedded third-party content on our site (like videos or social posts), those third parties receive data directly through your interaction. This isn’t information we actively “share” from our end (since it’s collected directly by the third party via the embed), but we want you to be aware of it. For instance, when you watch an embedded YouTube video on our site, YouTube knows you watched it and may process that information under their own privacy terms. Similarly, clicking a “Tweet” button will inform Twitter of that action. We do not send your personal data from our databases to these third parties, but your browser may transmit data to them automatically as described earlier.
Legal and Compliance: We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a legal obligation. For example, we might have to share data in response to a court order, subpoena, or a request from law enforcement or regulatory authorities. We will evaluate any request carefully and only provide information if we are legally compelled to, and only the data that is necessary to fulfill the request. We may also share information in order to establish or exercise our legal rights, or defend against legal claims.
Business Transfers: If Hodgkinson Bennis Limited is involved in a merger, acquisition, investment, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy, personal data held by us may be among the assets transferred to an acquiring or merging entity. The new owner or combined entity (as the case may be) would then assume the rights and obligations with respect to your personal data as described in this Privacy Policy. If such a transfer occurs, we will use reasonable efforts to notify you (for example, via a notice on our website) of any change in ownership or use of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information as a result of the transfer.
With Your Consent: In situations where you explicitly consent to or request that we share information with a third party, we will do so. For example, if you enter a joint promotion or competition that involves an external partner and you agree that we can share your contact details with them, or if you ask us to refer you to a partner business and consent to us giving them your information, we will share your data as instructed. Outside of such scenarios, we will not share your personal data with third parties for their own independent uses without your consent.

In all cases, we strive to ensure that anyone we disclose personal data to will handle it with appropriate care and security. Non-personal data (information that cannot identify you) may be shared publicly or with partners – for example, we might publish aggregate statistics about website usage or share anonymized trends with a business partner – but these would not include any data that could be linked back to an individual.

International Data Transfers

Our website is based in the United Kingdom and is intended for UK users. However, some of the third parties we use to support our website (as mentioned above) may be located outside of the UK, or may store and process data in other countries. For example, Google Analytics data may be processed on Google’s servers in the United States or other locations worldwide; our email service provider or web host might use servers in the EU, US, or other jurisdictions.

Whenever your personal data is transferred to a country outside the UK (or outside the European Economic Area, if relevant), we will ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by implementing appropriate safeguards as required by law. These may include:

Adequacy Decisions: If the data is transferred to a country that the UK (or EU) has determined via an “adequacy decision” provides an adequate level of data protection, then your personal data can be transferred on that basis. (For example, countries in the EEA are considered adequate under UK law, and there are some other countries deemed adequate as well.)
Standard Contractual Clauses: In the absence of an adequacy decision, we may use standard data protection clauses approved by the UK (and/or EU, as applicable), which legally oblige the recipient to protect your personal information to the same standard required in the UK. These are often part of our contracts with service providers.
Other Safeguards: In some cases, we might rely on other permitted mechanisms such as binding corporate rules (for intra-company transfers if applicable) or obtaining your explicit consent for the transfer, where appropriate.

We will provide further information on the specific mechanism used for any cross-border transfer of your personal data upon request. Despite the different laws in other countries, we will ensure that any entity processing your information outside the UK is required to keep it secure and process it only as we instruct.

Your International Data Rights: Note that when your data is transferred outside the UK, it may be subject to access by foreign courts, law enforcement and national security authorities in those jurisdictions. However, we only transfer data that is necessary, and we will challenge disproportionate or unlawful requests for access to personal data by authorities where we are able to do so. By using our site or engaging with us, you acknowledge that your personal data may be transferred to and processed in countries outside of your own, including the United States and countries that may have different data protection rules than your country.

If you have questions about our data transfer practices, please contact us.

Data Retention – How Long We Keep Your Data

We will retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

In other words, we follow the principle of storage limitation, meaning we do not keep personal data longer than is needed for the reason it was collected.

The retention period can vary depending on the type of data and how it is used. Here is a general overview of how long we keep different categories of data (please note that these are general guidelines – actual retention may be adjusted based on specific needs or legal changes, but we will inform you if any significantly different retention practice applies to your data):

Contact Form and Inquiry Data: If you contact us via a form or email, we will retain your message and contact details for as long as needed to respond to you and handle any follow-up. Typically, we might keep such correspondence for around 6 to 12 months after resolving your inquiry, in case you reach out again or referencing the past conversation is necessary. In some cases, if your inquiry leads to further business dealings (e.g., a contract or service agreement), we may retain the communications as part of our business records for the duration of that relationship and any required retention period thereafter.
Comment Data: If you leave a comment on our site, the comment and its associated information (your name, email, and potentially IP address and user agent recorded at the time of comment) are generally kept indefinitely on our website, since comments are part of the content of our site. This allows us to display your comment until such time as we may choose to remove it (for example, if the content is outdated and we prune old comments, or if you request deletion). Public comments remain visible to other visitors unless removed. However, you have the right to request that we delete your comment and personal data – if you ask us to do so, and we have no overriding reason to keep it (like a legal obligation or legitimate interest in retaining it), we will take steps to remove or anonymize your comment. Note that even if a comment is removed from public display, we might retain a backup record of it (with your information) on our secure servers or backups for a certain period, until those backups cycle out, purely for integrity and legal record-keeping.
Analytics Data: Data collected via Google Analytics is retained in accordance with Google’s policies and our configuration. We have set Google Analytics to retain user-level and event-level data for 14 months, after which it is automatically deleted from Analytics’ servers. We primarily look at aggregate trends rather than individual user data; however, Google Analytics may store certain technical data for the set period. Any aggregated reports we download or metrics we record will not contain personally identifiable data and may be kept longer (without any personal identifiers).
Server Logs: Our web server and security systems may keep logs of visits and events on the site (which can include IP addresses, pages visited, and timestamps). These logs are generally kept for a short duration – often a few weeks to a few months – and are used for performance monitoring, troubleshooting, and security purposes. Unless we need to retain them longer (for example, to investigate a security incident or as evidence of malicious activity), these logs are routinely overwritten or deleted.
Newsletter/Marketing Data: If you have explicitly signed up for a newsletter or asked us to send you updates, we will keep the personal data required for that (e.g., your name and email address) until you unsubscribe or withdraw your consent. Upon unsubscribing, we may retain just enough information (like your email) on a suppression list to ensure we honor your opt-out (i.e., to avoid accidentally sending you future emails). We’ll also retain records of when and how you consented to receive marketing (as required by law) for at least as long as we send you those communications, and for a short period after in case of disputes.
Legal Records and Compliance: We may need to retain certain data for longer periods if necessary to meet our legal obligations or to protect our legal interests. For example:
- Accounting/Transaction Records: If our site were to involve any transactions (like sales or donations), we would retain records of those transactions (which may include personal data) for the period required by tax and accounting laws (often 6 years in the UK).
- Litigation and Liability: If we are involved in legal proceedings or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation involving you or your data, we would retain the relevant information until the matter is resolved and no further appeal is possible, plus a reasonable period.
- Opt-out and Consent Records: As noted, we keep proof of consents and opt-outs as long as needed to demonstrate compliance (typically at least as long as we’re using the data plus a few years).

After the applicable retention period has elapsed, or if the data is no longer needed, we will either securely delete your personal data or anonymize it (so that it can no longer be associated with you). For example, we might remove identifying details from a dataset, keeping the core information for statistical analysis but with no way to trace it back to you.

If deletion or anonymization is not immediately feasible (for instance, because the data is stored in a secured backup that is not easily editable), we will store your data securely and isolate it from any further use until deletion is possible.

Data Security

We take appropriate security measures to protect your personal data from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. We have implemented administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect the personal information we process. These include:

Secure Hosting: Our website is hosted on servers that employ security measures such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and regular malware scanning. Data transmitted between your browser and our site is encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL/TLS) technology, indicated by the “https://” in the URL, to prevent eavesdropping.
Access Controls: Access to systems that store personal data is limited to authorized personnel who need it to perform their job duties. We restrict administrative access to our website and databases, and use strong password protection and, where possible, multi-factor authentication for administrative accounts. Staff and contractors who handle personal data are made aware of their data protection responsibilities and are contractually obliged to maintain confidentiality.
Data Minimization: We collect only the personal data that we actually need. By holding less data, we reduce the risk and impact of any potential loss or breach. For example, if we only need an email to contact you, we won’t also collect a phone number; and if we only need aggregated analytics, we avoid collecting identifiable analytics data if possible.
Encryption & Pseudonymization: Where applicable, we encrypt personal data at rest or in transit beyond the website connection. For instance, if any sensitive information is stored (say, password data for user accounts, if those existed), it would be hashed or encrypted. We may pseudonymize data in our internal systems such that individuals are referenced by an ID rather than by name, etc., making it less accessible without additional information. For analytics, as mentioned, we use features like IP anonymization.
Monitoring & Testing: We regularly monitor our website and IT systems for potential vulnerabilities and attacks. Software and plugins are kept up-to-date to ensure we have the latest security patches. We also have procedures to detect and respond to suspicious activities. Periodically, we review our security measures and make improvements as needed to adapt to new threats.
Data Breach Procedures: In the unlikely event of a data breach (an incident leading to accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to personal data), we have a response plan in place. We will investigate the incident promptly and take necessary actions to mitigate any harm. Where a breach is likely to result in a high risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify both you and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) without undue delay, as required by law.

While we strive to protect your information, please be aware that no method of electronic transmission or storage is 100% secure.

The internet is not an entirely secure medium, and we cannot guarantee absolute security of your data. You should also take care with how you handle and disclose your personal data online. Remember that emails, contact forms, or other communication channels might not be encrypted end-to-end, so avoid sending sensitive information through them.

We are continuously working to protect your personal data and maintain our security posture. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with our site or your information might no longer be secure (for example, if you suspect a vulnerability or you receive suspicious communication purporting to be from us), please notify us immediately using the contact details below so that we can address the issue.

Your Rights Under UK GDPR

Under UK data protection law, you have certain rights regarding your personal data. We respect your rights and have processes in place to help you exercise them. These rights include:

Right to Be Informed: You have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data. We fulfill this right by providing you with this Privacy Policy and, where appropriate, additional notices at the time of data collection. The goal is transparency – you should know what data we collect, why, how long we keep it, who we share it with, and what rights you have.
Right of Access: You have the right to access the personal data we hold about you. This is commonly known as a “Subject Access Request.” You can ask us to confirm if we are processing your personal data, and you can request a copy of that data (along with additional information about how and why it’s processed). We will provide this free of charge, within one month of your request (unless an exemption applies or if the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, in which case we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse the request – but we will explain our reasoning in such cases).
Right to Rectification: You have the right to have inaccurate personal data corrected, or incomplete data completed. If you discover that the information we hold about you is incorrect or out of date (for example, your name is misspelled or your contact information has changed), you can contact us and request we fix it. We will update the data as soon as possible and notify you of the change.
Right to Erasure: You have the right to request the deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances. This is sometimes called the “right to be forgotten.” You can request that we erase your personal information, for example, if it’s no longer needed for the purposes we collected it, or if you withdraw your consent and we have no other legal basis to continue processing it, or if you object to processing and we have no overriding legitimate interest in continuing. Please note, this right is not absolute – sometimes we may retain certain information if we have a compelling reason (such as a legal obligation or the need to establish or defend legal claims). We will inform you if that is the case.
Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to request the restriction or suppression of your personal data in certain situations. This means we can store your data but not actively use it. You can ask for restriction if, for instance, you contest the accuracy of your data (we then restrict processing while verifying accuracy), or if you objected to our processing and we are considering that objection, or if processing is unlawful but you want us to hold the data instead of deleting it, or if we no longer need the data but you need us to keep it for a legal claim. If processing is restricted, we will not use your data except to store it or for certain other limited purposes (like with your consent or for legal claims). We will let you know before any restriction is lifted.
Right to Data Portability: You have the right to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different services. This applies to data you have provided to us, when the processing is based on your consent or a contract and is carried out by automated means (for example, information you gave us electronically). You can request that we provide your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format (such as CSV or JSON), so you can transfer it to another company’s service. You can also ask, if it’s technically feasible, that we transfer the data directly to another organization on your behalf. This right is intended to enable moving your digital information easily, but note it only covers information you provided (not any additional analysis or notes we made, and not data processed under legal grounds other than consent or contract).
Right to Object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data in certain circumstances. You can always object to processing for direct marketing – if we were sending marketing, we would then stop. You can also object when we are processing data based on legitimate interests (or performing a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority) and you have a particular situation that makes you want to object (for example, you may object to analytics tracking if you believe it unjustifiably impacts your privacy). In such cases, we will stop processing the data unless we have compelling legitimate grounds that override your rights and interests or if we need to continue processing for legal claims. If you object to direct marketing, we will comply immediately; for other objections, we will consider your request and respond with our decision and reasoning.
Rights Related to Automated Decision-Making: You have rights to not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) if it produces legal or similarly significant effects on you, unless certain conditions are met (such as you have given explicit consent, or it’s necessary for a contract, and even then with safeguards). As stated, our website does not use your data for any kind of automated decision-making or profiling that would fall under this category. We don’t do credit scoring, algorithmic hiring decisions, or things of that nature. Therefore, this right will typically not need to be exercised in the context of our site. However, we mention it for completeness.
Right to Withdraw Consent: If we are processing any of your personal data based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. For example, if you subscribed to a newsletter and no longer wish to receive it, you can unsubscribe (which is a form of withdrawing consent). If you consented to cookies, you can change your preference and clear those cookies. Withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, but it will mean we stop the activities that relied on consent. There may be cases where we have another legal basis to continue processing your data (for example, we might still have to keep certain information for legal reasons), but we will inform you if that’s the case.
Right to Complain: In addition to the above rights, you always have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe we are not complying with our data protection obligations. The ICO is the UK’s supervisory authority for data protection (website: ico.org.uk, telephone: 0303 123 1113). You can report concerns to the ICO at any time. However, we do encourage you to contact us first with any complaint, and we will do our best to resolve it. We take privacy seriously and welcome the opportunity to address any issues directly. Oftentimes, a conversation can clear up misunderstandings or allow us to fix a problem swiftly. If you remain unsatisfied after contacting us, then you can escalate your complaint to the ICO.

How to Exercise Your Rights:
You can exercise any of your rights by contacting us (see the Contact Us section below for details). In most cases, we will need to verify your identity before fulfilling your request, to ensure that we do not disclose personal data to an unauthorized person. For example, if you email us to request access to your data, we may reply asking you to provide information that confirms you are who you say you are (this could be as simple as sending the request from the email address we have on file for you, or answering a couple of questions about your interactions with the site).

We will respond to legitimate requests as soon as we can, and at least within one month as required by law. If your request is complex or if you have made multiple requests, we are allowed to extend this period by up to two further months, but we will inform you within the first month if an extension is needed and explain why. Generally, we aim to be quicker than the legal deadline.

We will not typically charge a fee for handling a request to exercise your rights. All such requests are handled free of charge. However, if a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive (for example, repetitive requests without justification), the law permits us to either charge a reasonable fee to cover administrative costs or to refuse the request. If we ever refuse a request, we will provide you with an explanation for the refusal and inform you of your right to complain to the ICO.

Finally, please note that if your data has been shared with third parties (in accordance with this Privacy Policy), we will communicate necessary corrections or deletions to them where possible. For instance, if you asked us to delete your data, and we had provided that data to a service provider, we will inform the provider to also delete the data (except where it’s impossible or involves disproportionate effort; we’d inform you in that case).

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update or revise this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or for other operational reasons. When we make changes, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this policy document. If the changes are material, we may also provide a more prominent notice, such as a banner on our website or an email notification, to inform you of the update.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your personal data. It’s important that the information is up-to-date and that you are aware of any changes that might affect you. If you continue to use our website after changes to this policy are posted, we will take that as your acknowledgment of the changes, where applicable. If we seek to use your personal data for a new purpose that relies on your consent, we will obtain your consent for that new purpose.

For significant changes, especially those that may affect your rights or the lawful basis for processing, we will seek to notify you in advance when possible. However, minor changes (such as clarifications, grammar corrections, or organizational changes) may occur without a specific notice.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our handling of your personal data, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to help and will gladly address your inquiries. You may reach us at:

Hodgkinson Bennis Limited (Data Controller)
Attn: Mark Crompton
Email: mark@hodgkinsonbennis.engineering
Postal Address: Unit 10, Spring Street Business Park, Spring Street, Bolton, Greater Manchester BL3 6EH
Telephone: 0161 790 4411

We will do our best to respond promptly to any communications we receive. If you are contacting us to exercise a specific data protection right, please provide sufficient detail for us to process your request (for example, the email address you used on our site, and the specific action you want us to take).

Thank you for reading our Privacy Policy. We value your trust and are dedicated to protecting your personal data.