Valwet Privacy Policy
Introduction: Valwet (“we”, “us”, or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you visit our website or use our services. It also outlines your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and other applicable data protection laws. By using the Valwet website (valwet.com) or engaging our consulting and digital services, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use our site or services.
Who We Are: For the purposes of data protection law, the data controller of your personal information is Valwet (located at 11 Wave Close, Walsall, WS2 9LW, United Kingdom). You can contact us at help@valwet.com or info@valwet.com regarding any questions about your personal data. Valwet provides financial consulting, digital marketing, branding, and web development services to clients worldwide. In delivering these services and operating our website, we may collect and process personal data as described below.
Information We Collect: We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:
Information You Provide Directly: When you contact us or fill out forms on our website (such as inquiry forms, newsletter sign-ups, or service request forms), we collect the information you provide. This may include your name, email address, telephone number, company/organization name, job title, postal address, and any other details you choose to provide in your message. For example, if you request a consultation, you might provide details about your business and what services you are interested in. If you communicate with us via email or phone, we will collect the content of your communications and contact details to respond to you.
Service-Related Data: If you become a client of Valwet, we will collect information necessary to perform the services. This can include business information (e.g. your company background, project requirements, financial data for analysis, website content, branding preferences, etc.) that you or your authorized representatives provide to us. Such information will be used only for the purposes of delivering the agreed services and will be kept confidential according to our contractual agreements.
Payment Information: When you purchase services from us, we (or our third-party payment processors) collect payment details. Payments made online are processed securely by third-party providers such as Stripe or Revolut, which handle your credit/debit card information on our behalf. We do not store your full card details on our own servers. We may retain records of your transactions (e.g. invoices, amounts, and dates of payments) for accounting and billing purposes.
Automatically Collected Data (Usage and Technical Data): When you visit our website, our system may automatically collect certain data about your device and browsing actions through cookies and similar technologies. This data may include your IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting, operating system and platform, and information about how you use our site (such as pages viewed, links clicked, and length of visits). For example, we use Google Analytics to gather anonymous statistical information about visitors’ usage of our site (e.g. which pages are most visited, how users navigate the site). This helps us understand user behavior and improve our website and services. This automatically collected information typically does not identify you by name, but it may be considered personal data in combination with other details.
Cookies: Cookies are small data files placed on your device to collect standard internet log information and visitor behavior information. Our website uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to provide and improve our services, remember your preferences, and analyze usage. For instance, we may use both session cookies (which expire when you close your browser) and persistent cookies (which remain for a set period or until deleted) for authentication, security, and user experience purposes. You will be informed about cookies when you first visit our site, and where required by law we will obtain your consent for non-essential cookies. You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings. Note that blocking certain cookies may impact your experience of our site (for example, some features might not work). For more details, please see our Cookie Policy (if available) or contact us.
We do not intentionally collect any sensitive personal data (such as information about racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, health, genetic or biometric data, or sexual orientation) through our website. We ask that you refrain from providing such sensitive data to us unless it is necessary for a specific service and we have agreed in advance to handle it (and even then, only in accordance with law). We also do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. Our website and services are intended for adults and business entities. If you are under 16, please do not provide any personal information to us. If we learn we have collected personal data from a child under 16, we will take steps to delete it. Parents or guardians should contact us if they believe their child has provided personal data without consent.
How We Use Your Personal Data: Valwet will use your personal data only for legitimate business purposes and in accordance with applicable law. The purposes for which we process personal data include:
Service Delivery and Business Operations: To fulfill our obligations to you as a client. For example, we use your contact information to communicate with you about your project, send proposals or contracts, provide project updates, deliver final work products, and respond to your inquiries. If we are performing financial analysis or business consulting, we use the data you provided about your business in order to conduct the analysis and provide advice. For digital marketing or web development projects, we use the content and preferences you’ve given us to create your campaigns or websites.
Payments and Accounting: To process payments for our services and maintain proper financial records. We use your payment information (via our payment processors) to charge you for services, and we keep records of payments received and due. This may include sending you invoices, payment confirmations, receipts, and reminders for upcoming or overdue payments.
Communication and Marketing: To communicate with you about our services. We may send service-related announcements or messages (e.g. information about changes to our terms or policies, security alerts, or administrative messages). With your consent, or if we have a legitimate interest under law, we may also send you marketing communications such as newsletters, industry updates, or information about new services or promotions that might interest you. You can opt out of marketing emails at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the email or contacting us. We will not spam you or share your email with third parties for marketing unrelated to Valwet.
Improvement of Services and Website: To analyze and improve our offerings. We use aggregated usage data (and feedback you provide) to understand how users interact with our website and services. This helps us troubleshoot issues, test changes in our user interface, develop new features, and enhance the quality of our consulting services. For example, analyzing which pages of our site are frequently visited can guide website improvements. Any analytics or research is done in a way that does not identify individuals directly.
Legal Compliance and Security: To comply with legal obligations and protect our rights. We may process personal data to fulfill record-keeping requirements (such as tax and accounting laws that require us to retain transaction data), to respond to lawful requests by public authorities, or to prevent illegal activities. For instance, we may use certain data to verify identity and prevent fraud when processing payments. We also may use personal data as necessary to enforce our contracts and terms (e.g. if we need to pursue unpaid fees or handle a legal dispute) or to protect the security of our systems and our customers.
Our use of personal data is supported by one or more of the following legal bases under UK/EU data protection law: (a) Performance of a Contract – we process data to deliver services you have requested as per our agreements; (b) Legitimate Interests – we have a legitimate business interest in certain processing, such as improving our services or sending you information about our own services, and we ensure that your rights and interests are not overridden; (c) Consent – where required, we will obtain your consent for marketing communications or certain cookies, and you can withdraw consent at any time; (d) Legal Obligation – we process data when necessary to comply with laws (e.g. financial record-keeping, responding to legal process). We will not use your personal data for any purpose that is incompatible with the original purposes for which it was collected, unless we obtain your permission or are required by law.
Disclosure of Your Information (How We Share Data): Valwet treats your personal information with care and confidentiality. We do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties. We only share your data with third parties in the following circumstances:
Service Providers: We employ trusted third-party companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf and help deliver our services (data “processors”). This includes, for example: cloud storage and hosting providers, email service platforms, analytics providers, professional advisors (like accountants or lawyers), and subcontractors or consultants who assist in delivering the services. Payment processing is handled by third-party payment processors such as Stripe or Revolut, which will process your payment information securely in accordance with their own privacy policies. These service providers are given access to only the information necessary to perform their functions and are contractually obligated to handle your data securely and only for our specified purposes. For instance, when we process a credit card payment, Stripe will handle the card details and is not permitted to use your information except for processing the payment.
Within Valwet and Affiliates: If Valwet is part of a group or has affiliates, we may share data within our corporate family on a need-to-know basis (for example, if we have a subsidiary or partner company assisting in service delivery). All such entities will follow this Privacy Policy and are bound by appropriate confidentiality and data protection obligations.
Business Transfers: In the event that Valwet undergoes a business transaction such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your personal data might be among the assets transferred. If such a transfer happens, we will ensure the recipient of your data is bound by terms that protect your privacy to at least the same standard as this policy, and we will notify you (for example, via a notice on our website or email) of any change in data control or new uses of your personal information.
Legal Requirements and Protection: We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court order, law enforcement demand, or government regulatory request). Additionally, we may disclose information if we believe in good faith that such action is necessary to (i) comply with a legal obligation, (ii) protect and defend the rights, property, or safety of Valwet, our clients, or others, (iii) investigate or assist in preventing any violation of law or our Terms and Conditions, or (iv) protect against legal liability.
If we ever need to share your personal data in other scenarios not covered above, we will do so only with your explicit consent.
International Data Transfers: Valwet is based in the UK, and the data we collect is generally stored on servers located in the UK or European Economic Area (EEA). However, some of our third-party service providers (for example, cloud service or email providers) may process data in other countries, including countries outside the UK/EEA. If your personal data is transferred to or accessed from a country that does not have equivalent data protection laws to the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. Typically, this means we will rely on standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission/UK or an adequacy decision for the destination country, or other valid transfer mechanisms under GDPR. These measures are designed to ensure that your personal information remains protected to the standards of UK/EU law. You can contact us if you would like more information about international data transfer safeguards in relation to your personal data.
Data Retention: We will retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purpose of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. For example, if you are a client, we will keep your contact information and project records while we are providing services to you and thereafter for the period necessary to comply with legal obligations or for our legitimate business records (such as maintaining records of work performed and payments for a number of years for tax and contractual liability purposes). Typically, we retain contract and transaction information for 6 years after the end of our client relationship (which aligns with the UK’s statute of limitations for contractual claims and HMRC record-keeping requirements). We retain general inquiry emails or contact form submissions for a shorter period (e.g. 1-2 years) unless they lead to an ongoing client relationship.
For marketing communications, we will retain your contact details on our mailing list until you unsubscribe or otherwise request removal. If you withdraw consent or opt out, we will remove you from the list promptly, and in any case within the timeframe required by law.
When personal data is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, or if you ask us to delete it (and we have no legal obligation to keep it), we will securely erase, anonymize, or otherwise dispose of the information. We also regularly review the data we hold and delete or anonymize information that is no longer needed.
Your Rights: Under UK GDPR and other applicable data protection laws, you have certain rights regarding your personal data. These include:
Right to Be Informed: You have the right to be given clear information about how your personal data is used. This Privacy Policy and any related privacy notices aim to provide that information.
Right of Access: You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you, as well as information on how we process it (commonly known as a “Subject Access Request”). This allows you to confirm the details we have and to check that we are processing it lawfully.
Right to Rectification: If any personal data we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to request correction or completion of it. We encourage you to help us keep your information up-to-date by informing us of any changes.
Right to Erasure: You have the right to request that we delete your personal data in certain circumstances. This is also known as the “right to be forgotten.” For example, you can exercise this right if the data is no longer necessary for the purposes it was collected, or if you withdraw consent and we have no other legal basis to continue processing, or if you object to processing and we have no overriding legitimate grounds to continue. Please note that this right is not absolute – we may need to retain certain information if required by law or if an exemption applies (for instance, we cannot erase data that is needed to comply with a legal obligation or in defense of legal claims).
Right to Restrict Processing: You have the right to ask us to suspend or restrict the processing of your personal data in certain scenarios. For example, if you contest the accuracy of the data, you can request we pause processing until the accuracy is verified; or if you have objected to processing (see below) and we are considering our legitimate grounds. While processing is restricted, we can still store your data but will not use it further until the restriction is lifted (unless for legal reasons).
Right to Data Portability: For data that you have provided to us and that we process by automated means on the basis of consent or contract, you have the right to request a copy of such data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and you have the right to transmit that data to another controller where feasible. This right facilitates the transfer of personal data between service providers (note: it applies to limited scenarios, typically not to all data we hold).
Right to Object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where we are relying on legitimate interests as the legal basis, on grounds relating to your particular situation. You also have an absolute right to object to your personal data being used for direct marketing purposes. If you object, we will stop processing the personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing that override your interests, rights, and freedoms, or the processing is for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims. In the case of direct marketing, we will simply stop upon your objection.
Rights Related to Automated Decision-Making and Profiling: Valwet does not make any purely automated decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects, nor do we perform automated profiling in a way that produces such effects. However, if that were to change, you would have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) which significantly affects you, unless it is necessary for a contract with you, authorized by law, or you have given your explicit consent, and you would have the right to human intervention and to contest the decision.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at privacy@valwet.com or using the contact details provided below. We will respond to your request as soon as possible, and within one month at most, as required by law. This period may be extended by a further two months for complex requests, but we will inform you if an extension is needed. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling certain requests (to ensure we do not disclose data to the wrong person, for example). In general, you will not have to pay a fee to exercise your rights. However, if a request is unfounded or excessive (for instance, repetitive), we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act on it as permitted by law.
Security of Your Data: We take the security of personal data seriously. Valwet has implemented appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, loss, misuse, or alteration. These measures include secure servers, encryption of data in transit (e.g. using HTTPS on our website for form submissions), firewalls, access controls to data (so only staff who need the information can access it), and regular review of our security practices. We also ensure that any third-party processors we use have strong security practices (for example, Stripe and Revolut are PCI-compliant for handling payment info). Despite our efforts, please be aware that no method of transmitting data over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security of information. You share and transmit data to us at your own risk. In the unlikely event of a data breach that could compromise your privacy, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as required by law.
Third-Party Websites: Our website may contain links to external websites, plug-ins, or services that are not operated by Valwet. For example, we might link to our social media pages (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) or useful articles on third-party sites. This Privacy Policy does not cover those external sites. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site, which will have its own privacy policy and practices. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party websites or services. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of every site you visit.
Changes to This Privacy Policy: We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or for other operational reasons. If we make significant changes, we will post the updated policy on our website and update the “last updated” date. We may also notify you via email or a prominent notice on our site if the changes are material. Please review this page periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. Your continued use of our website or services after any changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes acceptance of those changes.
Contact Us: If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our handling of your personal data, please contact us:
Email: help@valwet.com or info@valwet.com (please include “Privacy Inquiry” in the subject line for clarity)
Phone: +44 7482 793227 (available during business hours for privacy-related questions)
Postal Address: Data Protection Officer, Valwet, 11 Wave Close, Walsall, WS2 9LW, United Kingdom
We will do our best to address and resolve any issues. If you feel that we have not adequately addressed your data protection concerns, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) or your local supervisory authority. The ICO is the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights (website: ico.org.uk). For EU residents, you may contact your country’s supervisory authority. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach a regulator, so please consider contacting us first.
By using our website or services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. Thank you for entrusting Valwet with your personal data – we value your privacy and will handle your information with care and respect.