Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

Berr Group respects your privacy and is committed to handling personal information responsibly. This policy explains how information is collected, used, stored and protected when you visit https://berr.group or contact Berr Group through the website, by email or by telephone.

Berr Group is operated by a UK sole trader, who is the data controller. The operator's name and address are set out in Complaints and legal correspondence below.

• Website: https://berr.group
• Email: enquiries@berr.group
• Telephone: 0330 088 5582

Berr Group is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under registration reference ZC275183.

2. Website enquiries

When you send an enquiry through the website, we collect:

• your name and email address;
• the type of your enquiry and your message;
• your preferred contact method;
• your business name, telephone number and other details, where you choose to provide them.

We also record the date and time of submission, an enquiry reference, the status of the enquiry, and a pseudonymised technical identifier used to prevent duplicate submissions and misuse. Your IP address is not stored with the enquiry.

For website-design enquiries made through our website enquiry form, we also collect the design you selected, your business sector, number of employees, any website or social media link you provide (or that you have none yet), referral details if you choose to give them, and any additional information. We may use these details to prepare a personalised proposal, which is reviewed by a person before it is sent.

Sending an enquiry does not subscribe you to any emails. When you submit a website-design enquiry, we send one automatic confirmation email to the address you gave, through Lovable's managed email service. We do not send automatic replies to other enquiries.

The website does not accept file uploads.

3. Telephone and email

If you call 0330 088 5582, we may receive your telephone number and the time of your call. If we are unable to answer and you leave a message, we receive the recording and anything you say in it. We may make a note of your call or message so that we can respond.

If you email us, we receive your email address, your message and any attachments.

Please do not include sensitive personal information in an enquiry, email or voicemail unless it is necessary.

4. Email updates and module notifications

You can ask us to email you for two separate purposes. Each is a separate request, and agreeing to one does not sign you up for the other.

• Berr Group updates. If you use the "Follow what we're building" form, we will send you occasional emails about Berr Group, including new services, websites and Genesis 1 modules.
• Module availability notifications. If you ask to be notified when a planned Genesis 1 module (such as G1 Quotes) becomes available, we will send you one email when that module is available. We will not use this request to send newsletters or other marketing, and we will not add you to Berr Group updates.

Both forms require you to tick a consent box, which is never ticked in advance. Submitting the Contact form does not sign you up for either.

What we record

• your email address;
• which purpose you agreed to (general updates or a specific module notification);
• the exact consent wording you agreed to;
• the website page where you gave consent;
• the date and time you gave consent;
• if you unsubscribe or change your preferences, the date and time you did so.

We also keep a one-way coded (hashed) value derived from your connection, used only to prevent spam and repeated automated submissions. We do not store your IP address in these records.

Lawful basis

We rely on your consent (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a)) and, for marketing emails, the consent requirements of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. You can withdraw consent at any time. This does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.

Withdrawing consent and managing your preferences

You can withdraw consent at any time, including before we have sent you any email. You can:

• use the unsubscribe or manage-preferences link in any email we send;
• request a secure preferences link from our unsubscribe page, which we will send to your email address; or
• contact enquiries@berr.group.

You can also ask us to delete your record completely. We will act on your request without undue delay.

Secure preference links

If you ask to manage your preferences on our unsubscribe page, and your address is on one of our lists, we email you a secure link. This is a service email sent only because you asked for it; it is not marketing. The page shows the same message whether or not your address is on a list.

To make this work we keep a temporary verification record: your email address, a coded (hashed) copy of the link — never the link itself — its expiry time, whether it has been used, and a one-way coded value derived from your connection used only to prevent misuse. The link works once and expires after 24 hours. When you open it and confirm, a short session lasting 30 minutes is created and recorded in the same coded way.

Verification records, including used links and expired sessions, are deleted automatically within seven days after they expire. They are deleted immediately if you ask us to delete your details. This automatic clean-up applies only to verification records.

The secure-link email is sent through Lovable's managed email service. That service adds its own unsubscribe link; using it stops all emails from our website to your address, including future secure links. You can still email enquiries@berr.group.

5. Genesis 1 feedback

Our Technology & Software page invites you to tell us which everyday business tasks Genesis 1 could help with. Taking part is optional. You do not need to give your name or email address, create an account or sign up for anything, and taking part does not add you to any mailing list.

What we record

• the options you chose (one or two);
• any short suggestion you write if you choose "Something else";
• the date and time you sent it;
• a one-way coded value derived from your internet connection (an HMAC-SHA-256 code created on our server using a secret key kept only in our secure server settings), used only to limit repeated or automated submissions.

We do not store your IP address. The coded value is kept with the feedback record it belongs to, is never shown in our admin screens or exports, and is deleted with that record. Because of this coded value, your feedback is not completely anonymous, although we cannot use it to identify you directly. Please do not include personal details in a written suggestion; if you do, we may delete it.

Why we use it

We use feedback for market research to understand which business tools people would find most useful. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(f)): learning what would help our customers, with minimal data and no contact details. Results are seen only by authorised Berr Group administrators and are not published.

6. How we use your information

• to receive and respond to enquiries, calls and messages;
• to discuss services or business requirements you have asked us about;
• to send updates or notifications you have consented to;
• to understand interest in planned Genesis 1 features;
• to keep appropriate records of business correspondence;
• to protect the website against spam and misuse;
• to meet applicable legal obligations.

For enquiries, we rely on steps before entering into a contract (where you ask about services you may wish to obtain), legitimate interests (responding to general enquiries, keeping correspondence records and protecting the website), and legal obligation where information must be kept or disclosed by law.

7. How information is stored and accessed

Enquiries, subscription records, verification records and Genesis 1 feedback are stored in the website's Lovable Cloud database, hosted on Amazon Web Services in Frankfurt, Germany (within the EEA). Access is restricted to authorised Berr Group administrators who must sign in.

When an enquiry arrives, an automated internal notification is sent to enquiries@berr.group. It contains only a short message and a link to the secure administrator area — not your name, contact details or message.

Administrators may export records for business record-keeping. Exported copies are subject to the same retention and deletion approach. We do not sell personal information or share it for others' marketing.

8. Service providers

• Lovable (Lovable Labs AB, Sweden) — website hosting, the database (Frankfurt, Germany), administrator sign-in and the website's email service. The website is delivered through Cloudflare's global network, so requests to view pages may pass through servers in other countries.
• Proton Mail (Proton AG, Switzerland) — business email for enquiries@berr.group. The UK recognises Switzerland as providing adequate data protection.
• A telephone service provider for 0330 088 5582.

Where a provider processes information outside the UK, we rely on UK adequacy regulations or other safeguards recognised by UK law. Before any marketing emails are sent, we will update this policy with the email delivery provider used for them.

9. How long we keep information

• Enquiries that do not lead to a customer relationship: up to 12 months from the last meaningful correspondence, then deleted. Records are reviewed manually each month. Internal status changes do not extend the period.
• Telephone messages and call notes: on the same basis as enquiries.
• Active general-update subscriptions: kept while you remain subscribed. Subscriptions inactive for 12 months are reviewed, and we may remove them or ask whether you still wish to hear from us.
• Module notifications: deleted within 30 days after the one-time availability email has been sent. We may keep a minimal record (email address, purpose and date) only where needed to honour a withdrawal of consent or prevent unwanted contact. If a planned module is cancelled, outstanding requests are removed during our regular review.
• Unsubscribed records: only the minimum needed to make sure we do not contact you again (email address, purpose and date), reviewed periodically and deleted when no longer needed. If you ask for full deletion, we may be unable to prevent contact if your address is submitted again in future.
• Secure-link verification records: deleted automatically within seven days after they expire.
• Genesis 1 feedback: up to 24 months from submission, with a monthly manual review and earlier deletion when no longer needed. Overall totals containing no personal information may be kept longer.
• Customer records and records we must keep by law are covered by a separate retention schedule.

Apart from secure-link verification records, deletion is carried out through manual review. We may keep information longer where needed to deal with a complaint, dispute or legal claim.

10. Keeping information secure

We use restricted administrator access, sign-in controls, server-side validation and spam protection. No internet-based system can guarantee complete security.

11. Your data protection rights

Under UK data protection law you may have the right to ask for a copy of your information, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, object to or restrict certain processing, withdraw consent, and ask for information to be transferred where the law provides this right. To make a request, email enquiries@berr.group. We may need to confirm your identity and will respond within the time required by law.

12. Cookies and browser storage

The public website uses no analytics, advertising or tracking technologies. See our Cookie Policy for details.

13. Complaints and legal correspondence

If you have a complaint or concern about Berr Group or how your information is handled, please contact us by email or telephone in the first instance so that we can look into it.

Formal written correspondence may be sent to the address above. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator: ico.org.uk.

14. Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when our services, website or legal obligations change. The latest version will always be available on berr.group.