1. Introduction
This notice explains how Hosting Telecom LTD collects and uses personal data through the hosting-telecom.uk website: when you browse it, use the WHOIS lookup or the Help search, or get in touch with us. Personal data we handle for customers under a service contract is covered by that contract.
2. Who we are
Hosting Telecom LTD (“Hosting Telecom”, “we”, “us”) is the controller of the personal data described here. We are a member of RIPE NCC and a Local Internet Registry.
If you have a question about this notice or about your data, email us at sales@hosting-telecom.uk or use the contact form and choose “Something else”.
3. The data we collect
- Contact form. Your name and email address, your company, phone number and contract number if you add them, your message and its topic. With each message we also record the IP address, the country it belongs to and your browser’s user agent, to fight spam and abuse.
- Server logs. Like any web server, ours records each request: the IP address, the date and time, the page requested, the page you came from and your browser’s user agent.
- WHOIS lookup. The IP address, AS number or domain name you look up. To stop automated scraping we count lookups per IP address and network; the counters expire within a day.
- Help search. The words you search for, with email addresses and numbers removed, and whether we found an answer. They aren’t linked to your IP address.
- Analytics. Only if you allow analytics cookies: Google Analytics records the pages you visit, how you reached the site, your type of device and browser, and your approximate location (town or city). Google Analytics 4 doesn’t log or store IP addresses.
- Cookies. See How we use cookies.
We don’t ask for special category data, such as health information, and the site isn’t meant for children.
4. How we use personal data
| Purpose | Data | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Answering your enquiry, preparing a quote or an order | Contact form details | Legitimate interests (replying to people who contact us); steps you ask us to take before a contract |
| Keeping the site and our network secure, stopping spam, scraping and attacks | Server logs, IP addresses, lookup counters, contact form records | Legitimate interests (security) |
| Understanding how the site is used and improving it | Analytics data | Consent — you can withdraw it at any time in Cookie settings |
| Improving the Help section | Help search queries | Legitimate interests |
| Meeting our legal obligations | Whatever the law requires | Legal obligation |
We don’t sell personal data, we don’t use it for marketing without your consent, and we don’t make automated decisions about you.
5. Disclosures of personal data
We share personal data only with:
- Microsoft, whose Microsoft 365 service hosts our email and receives the messages you send through the contact form;
- Google, which provides Google Analytics — only if you consent;
- professional advisers, the police, regulators or courts, where the law requires it or to protect our rights;
- a buyer of or successor to our business, if that ever happens, on the same terms as this notice.
Microsoft and Google act as our processors: they may use the data only on our instructions. The website itself runs on our own servers in the United Kingdom.
6. International transfers
The website and the data it collects are hosted in the UK. Microsoft and Google may process data outside the UK, including in the United States. Where they do, the transfer is covered by UK adequacy regulations, including the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, or by the ICO’s International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.
7. Data security
The site is served only over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Personal data is kept on our own servers; only authorised staff can reach them, and only from our own network. Contact form messages reach our mailbox over encrypted connections.
8. Data retention
We keep personal data only as long as we need it:
| Data | How long |
|---|---|
| Contact form enquiries in the website’s database | 12 months, then deleted automatically |
| Backups of the website’s database (they include enquiries) | 60 days |
| Emails in our mailbox | As long as we need to deal with your enquiry and any follow-up; if you become a customer, as long as the contract and the law require |
| Web server logs | 14 days |
| Website error logs | 12 weeks |
| WHOIS lookup counters | Up to 24 hours |
| Help search queries, without personal details | 400 days |
| Google Analytics data | 14 months |
| Your cookie choice | 12 months |
9. Your legal rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
- ask us to correct data that is wrong or incomplete;
- ask us to delete your data;
- ask us to restrict how we use it;
- object to our using it on the basis of legitimate interests;
- receive data you gave us in a machine-readable format;
- withdraw your consent at any time — for analytics, in Cookie settings.
To use any of these rights, email sales@hosting-telecom.uk or use the contact form. We’ll reply within one month. It’s free, unless a request is clearly unfounded or excessive.
If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.
10. Keeping your personal data accurate
Please let us know if your details change while we’re dealing with your enquiry.
11. Third-party links
The site links to other websites, such as RIPE NCC’s. We aren’t responsible for how they handle personal data; please read their own privacy notices.
12. Changes to this notice
We’ll update this notice when the way we use personal data changes. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.