Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

SouthEdge Solutions is run by Tom, a sole trader based in the United Kingdom. In this policy “we”, “us” and “our” mean SouthEdge Solutions.

We handle personal information in two different roles:

• As a controller for information about visitors to this website, people who try the live demo or contact us, and our clients. We decide how and why that information is used, and this policy explains it.
• As a processor for the businesses we work for (our clients). When we run an enquiry-response system for a client, the client decides how their customers’ information is used, and we act only on their instructions. Section 11 explains what this means if you are one of their customers.

We follow UK data protection law, including the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.

• Email: thomas@southedge.co.uk

2. What we collect

When you visit this website

• Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs, such as your internet (IP) address, the type of browser you use, the pages you request and when. We do not use these logs to identify you.
• If you use the demo form, your IP address is also held briefly in the server’s memory (about 10 minutes) to stop the form being flooded with repeat submissions. It is never saved with your enquiry.

When you send a test enquiry through the live demo form

• Your first name and email address.
• Your business name, mobile number and type of business, if you choose to give them.
• The message you write.
• A record that you ticked the box confirming you understand how the demo works, whether you also ticked the optional box to receive updates, which version of that wording you saw, the date and time, and the page you sent it from.

Your first name, email address and message are needed to run the demo; everything else is optional.

When you email us or book a call

• Your name, contact details and anything you tell us in your message or on the call.
• The details you enter on our booking page, such as your name, email address, chosen time and any notes. If you reached the booking page from one of our package buttons, the note starts with the package you were looking at, which you can change.

When you become a client

• Your business and contact details, and those of the people we deal with in your business.
• Billing details and a record of payments. We do not take card payments on this website. Payments are made through a secure payment page run by Stripe, and we do not see your full card details.
• The settings and message wording we agree for your system.

We do not ask for sensitive information (such as health details), and this website is not aimed at children.

3. How we use it, and our legal reasons

The law requires us to have a reason (a “lawful basis”) for each use of your information. Ours are:

• To run the live demo you asked for. We put your test enquiry through the demo system, which records it and sends you its automatic messages, and we answer any questions you send us about it. Legal reason: our legitimate interest in giving you the demonstration you requested. The required tick box confirms you understand this; it is not a request for marketing consent. (Test enquiries sent through the earlier version of this form, which asked for your consent, stay on that basis: we continue to rely on that consent for them, and you can withdraw it at any time.)
• To send you occasional updates, only if you ticked the optional box.Legal reason: your consent. You can withdraw it at any time by using the unsubscribe option in any update or by emailing us, and we will stop.
• To reply when you email us or book a call. Legal reason: our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us about the service.
• To provide the service to clients and to get paid for it. Legal reason: it is necessary for our contract with you. If you are a client, we may also tell you about similar services we offer; you can opt out at any time.
• To keep business and tax records. Legal reason: we are legally required to.
• To keep the website and the system secure and working. For example blocking spam and fixing faults. Legal reason: our legitimate interest in running a safe, reliable service.

We only send marketing emails or texts where the law allows it: with your consent, or to existing clients about similar services, always with a simple way to opt out. We do not sell your information, and we do not pass it to anyone else for their own marketing.

4. How the automated system handles an enquiry

The live demo runs through the same kind of automated workflow our clients use, so you can see what it does. When you send a test enquiry:

• The details are saved in our lead record (a spreadsheet).
• An automatic acknowledgement is emailed to the address you gave. It comes from a sample business in the trade you chose, and says it is a demonstration.
• We receive an alert about your enquiry by email, and sometimes by text message.
• An AI tool reads your message and produces a short summary, a category (for example “quote request”), an urgency level and a score that helps decide which enquiries to look at first.
• If you gave a UK mobile number, the system may also send you an acknowledgement by text message.
• If the same email address is used again for a test within a week, the repeat is logged but not answered again.
• The demo is not set up to send you follow-up messages.

The AI tool only sorts and summarises. It does not make decisions based solely on automated processing that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you, and a person can always review your enquiry. If you would like one to, just ask. Under the AI provider’s terms for business use (OpenAI, in the United States), the content it processes for us is not used to train its models; OpenAI may keep it for up to 30 days to check for misuse, then deletes it.

5. Who we share it with

We use a small number of companies to run the website and the workflow. They handle your information on our behalf and only on our instructions:

• Make (Celonis) runs the automated workflow.
• OpenAI provides the AI tool that summarises and sorts enquiries.
• Twilio sends and receives text messages.
• Calendly runs our booking page.
• Vercel hosts this website and keeps its server logs.
• Stripe handles client payments. Stripe is also responsible, in its own right, for some payment information under its own privacy policy.

We also use Google’s email and spreadsheet services, which hold our email and the lead record. Google provides these services under its own terms and privacy policy. Emails sent to thomas@southedge.co.uk are passed on automatically by our domain’s email-forwarding service to that Google mailbox, where they are kept.

We may also share information with our accountant or professional advisers, and with regulators, courts or the police where the law requires it.

6. Where it is stored

Some of the companies above are based outside the UK, mainly in the European Union and the United States, and our workflow service runs in its European data centre. Where your information is sent abroad we rely on protections recognised in UK law: the UK government’s adequacy regulations (for example for the European Union, and for US companies certified under the UK extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, known as the UK–US data bridge), or approved contract terms such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses. You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards we rely on.

7. How long we keep it

• Demo enquiries and other enquiries that do not lead to work: up to 12 months after our last contact with you, then deleted.
• Client records, invoices and payment records: six years after our work together ends, to meet tax and accounting rules.
• Email updates (if you opted in): until you unsubscribe. We then keep your address on our do-not-contact list.
• “Do not contact” requests: if you ask us not to contact you, we keep a minimal record (your email address or number and the date) for as long as we need it to make sure we respect that request.
• Server logs: kept by our hosting provider for a short period under its own retention settings.

You can ask us to delete your information sooner (see below).

8. How we keep it secure

We take appropriate steps to protect personal information, including:

• encrypted (HTTPS) connections for this website and the services our workflow uses;
• limiting access to the accounts that hold personal information to the people who need it to run the service;
• keeping the address the demo form sends enquiries to on our server, never in your browser;
• checking and cleaning everything sent through the demo form, and limiting repeat submissions;
• using established providers that publish their own security and data protection commitments.

No system is completely secure. If a breach affecting your information is likely to put you at risk, we will tell you and, where the law requires it, the Information Commissioner’s Office.

9. Your rights, and how to complain

You have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct anything that is wrong;
• ask us to delete it;
• ask us to limit how we use it;
• ask for it in a format you can pass to someone else, where we rely on your consent or a contract;
• withdraw your consent at any time.

Your right to object. You can object at any time to our use of your information based on our legitimate interests, and to any marketing. If you object to marketing, we will stop.

To use any of these rights, email thomas@southedge.co.uk. It is free, and we will answer within one month (we may need to confirm who you are first).

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please complain to us first, by email at thomas@southedge.co.uk. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it without undue delay, keep you updated and tell you the outcome. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.

10. Cookies and tracking

This website does not set cookies of its own, does not store anything in your browser, and has no advertising trackers. It does not use analytics. Because nothing non-essential is stored on your device, there is no cookie banner to accept. (Our hosting provider’s security systems could set a strictly necessary cookie if they ever need to check that a visitor is not a bot.)

The 60-second film is served from this website. Nothing is loaded from other companies to play it.

Our booking page opens on Calendly’s own website, which uses its own cookies under Calendly’s cookie policy.

11. If you are a customer of one of our clients

We set up and manage enquiry-response systems for other businesses. If you contacted one of those businesses and received an automatic reply, that business is the controller of your information and is responsible for it. We are their processor: we only handle it on their behalf and on their written instructions.

Depending on the package the business uses, their system may handle:

• your contact details and the enquiry you sent;
• an automatic summary, category and urgency level of your enquiry (see section 4);
• any booking you make, and the status of your enquiry, for example whether a quote was sent or the job was completed;
• your mobile number, if you gave one, and any text messages the business has asked the system to send you (an acknowledgement and one follow-up);
• messages you send in reply, and any request not to be contacted again.

Review requests. Some businesses use our review-request feature. When the business marks your job as done, the system emails you once, from the business, to thank you and ask for honest feedback on Trustpilot. Depending on how the business has set up its Trustpilot account, the email either contains a link to the business’s Trustpilot page, or a copy of the thank-you email, including your name, email address and a reference number, is sent to Trustpilot so that Trustpilot can send you its own invitation on the business’s behalf. Any review you choose to write is handled by Trustpilot under its own terms and privacy policy. The system asks every customer whose job is marked as done in the same way, and its messages offer nothing in return for a review. Each request includes a simple way to opt out.

If you do not want further messages, reply STOP (by text or at the start of an email reply) or tell the business. A STOP reply to a follow-up or a text is recorded automatically; the business records any other request, including a reply to a review request. Once you are marked as “do not contact”, the system’s automated messages to you stop.

Please contact the business first with any question or request about your information. If you contact us instead, we will pass your request on to them and help them answer it.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this page from time to time. The date at the top shows when it was last changed. If a change is significant and we hold your contact details, we will tell you.