What we do with what you give us.
Plain English, because you shouldn't need a lawyer to understand your accountant either. This page covers the website only. Clients' data is covered by the engagement letter you sign with us.
Who we are
Echo Accountants Ltd is the data controller for this website. We are a company registered in England and Wales, number 12742973, with our registered office at 4 Longwalk, Stockley Park, Uxbridge UB11 1FE. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO registration number to be confirmed on this page before launch).
This page explains what happens to the personal information you give us through echoaccountants.co.uk. It does not cover other websites we link to, including WhatsApp, Google Maps, LinkedIn and Instagram, which have their own privacy notices.
What we collect
We only collect what you choose to give us, plus the small amount of technical information any website needs to work.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| You use the instant estimate | Your answers about your business (for example turnover band, transaction volume, whether VAT or payroll applies), your name, your email address and, if you give it, your phone number. |
| You send a message from the contact page | Your name, email address, phone number if you give it, what the message is about and the message itself. |
| You download a factsheet or guide | Your first name and email address, and which sheet or guide you asked for. |
| You take the director health check | Your answers to the seven questions, your first name and email address and the one-line challenge if you write one. The result we show you is stored with them. |
| You ask to hear about the podcast | Your email address. |
| You fill in the pre-discovery form | Your name, email address, phone number if you give it, your company and role and your answers about the business: how it is set up, what it does, how long it has traded, turnover band, VAT, software, transaction volume, what you need help with and your goals. |
| You use Ask Echo, the site assistant | Your questions, its answers, the page you were on and a hashed IP address. The conversation is anonymous unless you choose Talk to a person, when your name, email address and business are added. Please do not type bank details, tax references or other sensitive information into the chat. |
| You email, call or WhatsApp us | What you send us, and the number or address you send it from. |
| You visit any page | Our hosting provider records standard server logs: your IP address, browser type, the pages requested and the time. We use these only to keep the site running and secure. |
| You send any form | Alongside what you typed we keep the page you sent it from, the page that brought you there if your browser tells us, your browser type and a scrambled (hashed) version of your IP address that cannot be turned back into the address. These help us spot abuse of the forms. |
We do not ask for, and please do not send through the website, anything more sensitive than that. Bank details, tax references, identity documents and similar belong in the secure systems we set up with you once you are a client.
Why we use it, and on what basis
- To reply to you. If you ask for an estimate, send a message, book a call or request a factsheet, we use your details to do exactly that. The legal basis is that you have asked us to (contract, or the steps before one).
- To follow up once. After an estimate or a download, a member of the team may email or call you once to ask whether it was useful and whether you would like to talk. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in following up an enquiry you started. You can tell us to stop at any time and we will.
- To send you updates you have asked for. If you tick a box asking for the updated version of a factsheet when the rules change, or for the occasional practical tip after the health check, or to hear when the podcast launches, we send it. That is consent, and you can withdraw it with one reply.
- To run the site. Server logs and security monitoring, on the basis of our legitimate interest in keeping the site working and safe.
We do not sell your information, we do not add you to a newsletter you did not ask for and we do not pass your details to anyone so they can market to you.
How long we keep it
- Enquiries, estimates and messages. For as long as we need them to deal with your enquiry and any follow-up. If you do not become a client, we delete them once the enquiry is closed.
- Ask Echo conversations. Up to twelve months, so we can improve the answers, then deleted automatically. A conversation you hand to the team is kept with your enquiry.
- Factsheet and guide requests. Until you ask us to stop sending updates, or until we stop publishing the sheet.
- Server logs. Kept by our hosting provider for a short rolling period, then deleted automatically.
- Clients. Once you become a client, your information is kept under the retention periods in your engagement letter, which reflect our professional and legal obligations.
How we keep it safe
The website is served over HTTPS. Form submissions are checked and stored by a server function, not by the page you see, and go into our lead management system and our mailboxes, both protected by two-factor authentication and access controls. The website itself keeps nothing. We work through Xero and secure, access-controlled systems rather than loose email attachments, and everyone at Echo is bound by professional obligations of confidentiality.
No system is perfectly secure. If we ever became aware of a breach affecting your information we would tell you and, where required, the ICO.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:
- tell you what information we hold about you and give you a copy;
- correct anything that is wrong;
- delete it, where we have no continuing reason to keep it;
- stop using it for a particular purpose, or restrict what we do with it;
- give it to you, or another provider, in a usable format;
- stop any marketing, which we will do straight away.
Email info@echoaccountants.co.uk with what you would like and we will respond within one month. We may ask you to confirm who you are first. There is no charge.
Changes to this page
We update this page when our suppliers or practices change. The date at the top tells you when. The version on the site at the time of your visit is the one that applies.
Questions and complaints
Questions about this page, or about anything we hold on you, go to info@echoaccountants.co.uk, or in writing to Echo Accountants Ltd, 4 Longwalk, Stockley Park, Uxbridge UB11 1FE, or by phone on 020 8087 3107.
If you are not happy with how we have handled your information, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would rather hear from you first so we can put it right.
The law of England and Wales applies to this page.