Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Optima Design Services Ltd (“Optima”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a product design and development consultancy based in the United Kingdom.

For data-protection purposes, Optima Design Services Ltd is the controller of the personal information described in this notice.

Company details

Optima Design Services Ltd
Unit 20, The Courtyard
Maisies Way
The Village
South Normanton
Derbyshire
DE55 2DS
United Kingdom

Registered in England and Wales. Company number: 03224819.

Ian Cowlishaw, Director, is responsible for data protection within Optima. You can contact us about this notice or the way we use your information through our Contact page, by calling +44 (0)1773 582 870 or by writing to the address above.

2. What this notice covers

This notice explains how we collect, use, store and share personal information relating to:

• customers and prospective customers;
• suppliers, contractors and professional advisers;
• people who contact us or visit our website;
• representatives and employees of organisations with which we work; and
• other professional and business contacts.

Employees, workers and job applicants are provided with separate privacy information where appropriate.

3. Information we collect

Depending on your relationship with Optima, we may collect:

• your name, job title and employer;
• your business or personal contact details;
• information contained in an enquiry or contact form;
• correspondence, meeting notes and records of telephone calls;
• information required to prepare quotations and proposals;
• contractual, project and customer-service information;
• billing, payment and transaction information;
• supplier, contractor and professional-adviser information;
• marketing preferences and records of communications;
• information contained in design briefs, project correspondence, technical documents or CAD-related project records;
• website information, including your IP address, browser, device, pages visited, approximate location and interaction with our website; and
• any other information you choose to provide to us.

Please avoid sending personal information that is not necessary for your enquiry or project.

We do not intentionally collect information about children through this website.

4. How we obtain information

We normally collect personal information directly from you when you:

• contact us through our website, by email or by telephone;
• ask for information, a quotation or a proposal;
• enter into a contract or work with us on a project;
• supply products or services to us;
• meet us at an event, exhibition or business meeting;
• subscribe to or respond to a communication; or
• use our website.

We may also obtain information from your employer or colleagues, professional advisers, project partners, referrals, publicly available business sources, Companies House, LinkedIn and other legitimate professional sources.

Technical information may be collected automatically through cookies and similar technologies. Further information is provided in our Cookie Policy.

5. How and why we use your information

We may use personal information to:

• respond to enquiries and communicate with you;
• prepare quotations, proposals and project plans;
• enter into and perform contracts;
• provide product design, engineering, visualisation, prototyping and related services;
• manage customer, supplier and professional relationships;
• administer projects and maintain project records;
• process invoices, payments and accounting records;
• protect our confidential information, designs, intellectual property, systems and premises;
• maintain and improve our website and services;
• send relevant business-to-business marketing communications;
• establish, exercise or defend legal claims;
• meet contractual, insurance, tax, regulatory and legal obligations;
• prevent or investigate fraud, misuse, security incidents and unlawful activity; and
• maintain business continuity and recover information following an incident.

6. Our lawful bases

UK data-protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for using personal information. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on:

Contract: where processing is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you.

Legal obligation: where we need to comply with tax, accounting, employment, regulatory or other legal requirements.

Legitimate interests: where processing is reasonably necessary for our business or another organisation’s legitimate interests and those interests are not overridden by your rights. These interests include managing professional relationships, responding to business enquiries, delivering and improving our services, maintaining project records, protecting information and systems, recovering debts, establishing legal rights and undertaking proportionate business-to-business marketing.

Consent: where you have made a genuine choice, including consent to certain non-essential cookies or marketing activities. You may withdraw consent at any time.

Vital interests: in exceptional circumstances where processing is necessary to protect someone’s life.

Where we process special-category information, we will also identify an additional condition permitted by law.

7. Marketing

We may use business contact information to send relevant information about Optima’s services where permitted by law. We may rely on consent or our legitimate interest in promoting our services to organisations and professional contacts.

You can ask us to stop sending marketing communications at any time by using the unsubscribe method in the communication or contacting us.

We may keep a limited suppression record after you opt out so that we can ensure your preference continues to be respected.

We do not sell personal information or provide it to third parties for their own unrelated marketing.

8. Cookies and website services

Our website uses necessary cookies and may use analytics, embedded-video, font and marketing technologies. Non-essential technologies will be used only where the required consent has been obtained.

The organisations providing these services may receive technical information such as your IP address, browser and device information. Some providers may process information outside the United Kingdom.

You can accept, reject or change your choices using the website’s consent controls. More information should be provided in our Cookie Policy.

9. Who we share information with

Where necessary and lawful, we may share information with:

• our employees and authorised contractors;
• IT support, website, hosting, email, cloud-storage and backup providers;
• Microsoft and other approved business-software providers;
• professional advisers, including accountants, solicitors, insurers and consultants;
• banks and payment-service providers;
• project partners, manufacturers, prototype suppliers and other authorised suppliers where necessary to deliver a project;
• customers where we process information as part of their project;
• public authorities, regulators, courts or law-enforcement bodies where required; and
• a prospective purchaser, investor or adviser in connection with a sale, restructuring or transfer of all or part of our business.

Our authorised IT support provider may access systems and information where reasonably necessary to provide support, maintenance, security, backup or recovery services.

Suppliers processing personal information on our behalf must provide appropriate confidentiality, security and data-protection commitments.

10. International transfers

Some cloud, website, analytics, embedded-media and software providers may store or access information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we will use an arrangement recognised by UK data-protection law. This may include UK adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to approved contractual clauses or another permitted safeguard.

You can contact us if you would like further information about the safeguards applying to a particular transfer.

11. How we protect information

We use proportionate technical and organisational safeguards intended to protect personal information against loss, misuse, alteration and unauthorised access or disclosure.

These safeguards include:

• access controls and unique user accounts;
• password, device and network-security measures;
• approved systems and storage locations;
• encryption where appropriate;
• malware protection, security updates and monitoring;
• daily backups, including an encrypted off-site backup held in a UK data centre;
• confidentiality requirements;
• secure disposal; and
• procedures for managing security incidents and personal data breaches.

Our principal approved working locations include Microsoft OneDrive and Optima’s local server.

No internet transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. However, we take reasonable and proportionate steps to protect the information entrusted to us.

12. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and to meet legal, contractual, operational and evidential requirements.

As a general guide:

• unsuccessful or preliminary enquiries may normally be retained for up to three years after the last meaningful contact;
• customer, contract and project records may normally be retained for up to seven years after the relationship or project ends;
• accounting and tax records will normally be retained for at least six years after the relevant financial period;
• marketing information will be retained until you opt out or the information is no longer useful or accurate;
• website and security records will be retained for a period proportionate to their operational and security purpose; and
• data-protection requests and complaints may normally be retained for up to six years after closure.

Some design, intellectual-property, warranty, regulatory or contractual records may need to be retained for longer. Information may also be kept longer where necessary for a dispute, legal claim, investigation or legal hold.

When information is no longer required, it will be securely deleted, anonymised or destroyed.

13. Your rights

Subject to legal conditions and exemptions, you may have the right to:

• request access to your personal information;
• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• request deletion of your information;
• ask us to restrict how information is used;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• object at any time to direct marketing;
• request transfer of information in a portable format;
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent; and
• obtain safeguards relating to significant decisions made solely by automated means.

Optima does not ordinarily make decisions about people based solely on automated processing where the decision would have a legal or similarly significant effect.

We may need to verify your identity before dealing with a request. We will respond without undue delay and normally within one month. We do not normally charge a fee.

14. Data-protection complaints

If you have a concern or complaint about how we use personal information, please contact Ian Cowlishaw using our Contact page, telephone number or postal address.

You do not need to use a particular form or refer specifically to data-protection law.

We will:

• record and acknowledge your complaint within 30 days;
• make appropriate enquiries without undue delay;
• keep you informed where the matter cannot be resolved promptly; and
• communicate the outcome and any appropriate action without undue delay.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Website: www.ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1113

We would appreciate the opportunity to address your concern before you approach the ICO, although you are not required to contact us first.

15. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice when our services, systems, suppliers or legal obligations change. The latest version will be published on this page with its revision date.