Privacy policy

Whether you are exploring our materials, requesting samples, downloading technical information or speaking to us about a project, we want you to feel confident about how your personal information is handled.

This Privacy Policy explains what Clayworks Ltd collects, why we use it, who we may share it with, how long we keep it and the choices available to you. We collect only the information we reasonably need to operate our business, respond to you and support the people and organisations with whom we work.

We do not sell personal information.

1. Who we are

Clayworks Ltd designs and manufactures natural clay plasters and architectural surface finishes. For UK data-protection purposes, Clayworks Ltd is the controller of the personal information described in this policy.

Clayworks Ltd
Clayworks Higher Bochym Workshops
Cury Cross Lanes
Helston
Cornwall
TR12 7AZ
United Kingdom

Company number: 04552140
Email: [email protected]

2. When this policy applies

This policy applies when you:

Visit clay-works.com;
Contact us by website form, email, telephone, post, social media or in person;
Request samples, literature, technical information or specification support;
Enquire about a project, product, order, distributor, training session or CPD presentation;
Buy products or services from us, or supply products or services to us;
Subscribe to our newsletters or other marketing communications;
Apply for a role or otherwise discuss working with us; or
Attend an event or interact with Clayworks in another business context.

The website is intended principally for professional and adult audiences. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children through it.

3. Information we collect

The information we collect depends on your relationship with us and what you ask us to do.

Information you give us

This may include:

Identity and professional information, such as your name, organisation, role and professional interests;
Contact information, such as your email address, telephone number, postal address and country;
Project information, such as project name, location, stage, type, design requirements, intended application, programme and members of the project team;
Enquiry and correspondence information, including the content of forms, emails, calls and other communications;
Order, delivery and transaction information, including products requested or purchased, delivery details, invoices and payment status;
Sample, CPD, event and technical-support requests;
Marketing preferences and records of consent, subscription and unsubscribe choices;
Recruitment information, such as a CV, work history, portfolio, qualifications and information you choose to provide during an application; and
Feedback, survey responses, photographs, testimonials or other material you choose to share with us.

Please do not send sensitive personal information unless it is genuinely necessary and we have asked for it. If you include information about another person, you should make sure you are entitled to provide it and, where appropriate, that they have seen this policy.

Information collected when you use our website

Our systems and service providers may collect:

IP address and approximate location;
Browser, device and operating-system information;
Pages viewed, links followed, referring page, visit time and interaction information;
Cookie choices and consent records;
Security, diagnostic and server-log information; and
Information generated through embedded media, anti-spam or analytics services, depending on your cookie choices.

Our Cookie Policy gives more detail.

Information from other sources

We may receive professional contact or project information from:

Your colleagues, consultants, contractors, clients, distributors or other members of a project team;
Publicly available professional sources, company websites, directories and Companies House;
Event organisers, where the organiser has lawfully shared attendee information;
Delivery, payment, credit-reference or fraud-prevention providers where relevant; and
Our distributors, representatives and professional advisers.

4. How and why we use information

UK data-protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for each use of personal information. The bases most relevant to our activities are: taking steps at your request or performing a contract; our legitimate interests or those of another person; your consent; and compliance with a legal obligation.

We use information for the following purposes.

Enquiries, samples and project support

We use contact, professional and project information to understand your request, provide samples or literature, offer technical or specification support, arrange follow-up and maintain a record of the advice and information supplied.

Our basis is usually taking steps at your request, performing a contract or our legitimate interests in responding to genuine enquiries, supporting projects and maintaining accurate business records.

Orders, delivery and customer relationships

We use identity, contact, transaction and delivery information to prepare quotations, process orders, deliver products, manage accounts, deal with returns or concerns and provide aftercare.

Our basis is usually contract, legitimate interests in managing our customer relationships and legal obligations relating to tax, accounting, product safety and business records.

Technical support, specifications and CPDs

We use professional and project information to answer technical questions, prepare or review information, organise CPDs and training, and keep a useful record of project-specific discussions.

Our basis is usually contract or legitimate interests in providing accurate support, improving our services and protecting Clayworks and project teams through reliable records.

Marketing and professional updates

If you subscribe, we may send product news, project stories, technical updates, event invitations and other Clayworks communications. Mailchimp is used to manage email marketing.

Where the law requires consent, we rely on consent. In limited business-to-business circumstances we may rely on legitimate interests where electronic-marketing rules permit it and where our communications are relevant and proportionate. You can unsubscribe at any time by using the link in an email or contacting us. We may retain a minimal suppression record so that we respect your choice.

We will not share your information with another organisation for that organisation’s own marketing without your permission.

Website operation, analytics and improvement

We use technical and usage information to keep the website secure, understand performance, diagnose problems and improve content and navigation. Essential security processing is based on our legitimate interests. Optional analytics and embedded-media technologies are controlled through our cookie-consent process and are used on the basis described in the Cookie Policy.

Business management and internal records

We use information to allocate enquiries, manage relationships, plan work, maintain project and customer records, measure service quality, train colleagues and run the business. Relevant information may be recorded manually in business systems including Pipedrive and monday.com; website enquiries are not automatically sent to those systems based on the information supplied for this policy.

Our basis is contract, legal obligation or our legitimate interests in efficient administration, service improvement and maintaining appropriate records.

Recruitment

We use application information to assess suitability, communicate with candidates, arrange interviews and manage recruitment. Our basis is taking steps at your request, legitimate interests in recruitment and, where applicable, legal obligations. If we wish to retain an unsuccessful application for a future opportunity beyond our normal recruitment period, we will ask first where consent is the appropriate basis.

Legal, regulatory and protective purposes

We may use information to keep records required by law, establish or defend legal claims, obtain professional advice, prevent fraud or misuse, protect our systems and people, or respond to regulators, courts and public authorities.

Our basis is legal obligation or legitimate interests in protecting Clayworks, our customers, our colleagues and others. Where the law requires a different condition, we will use it.

5. If you do not provide information

You do not normally have to give us personal information. However, if information is needed to answer an enquiry, deliver a sample, enter into a contract or meet a legal requirement, we may be unable to proceed without it. We will tell you where information is required and where it is optional.

6. Website forms and anti-spam protection

Our website is built using WordPress and Elementor, and forms are provided using Elementor. When you submit a form, the information is sent to Clayworks and may also be stored or processed within the website and hosting environment so that it can be delivered and managed.

Forms may use Google reCAPTCHA to distinguish genuine users from automated abuse. reCAPTCHA may collect device, interaction and technical information. Its use is subject to Google’s privacy policy and terms. Please see our Cookie Policy for more information about the technologies used on the site.

7. Who receives information

We share information only where reasonably necessary and with appropriate controls. Recipients may include:

Clayworks colleagues, contractors and authorised representatives who need the information for their work;
Website, hosting and maintenance providers, including WordPress/Elementor-related services, Solve and underlying infrastructure providers;
Cloudflare for website delivery and security;
Google for analytics, tag management and reCAPTCHA, depending on the service and your choices;
CookieYes for recording and managing cookie preferences;
Vimeo where embedded video is used and permitted by your choices;
Mailchimp for email subscriptions and campaigns;
Pipedrive and monday.com where relevant information is entered for relationship, project or workflow management;
Email, cloud-storage, IT support, accounting, payment, banking and professional-service providers;
Distributors, representatives, couriers, hauliers or fulfilment partners where needed to respond to you or deliver products and samples;
Insurers, auditors, solicitors and other professional advisers;
Regulators, law-enforcement bodies, courts or public authorities where disclosure is required or permitted by law; and
A buyer, investor or adviser in connection with a proposed sale, investment, reorganisation or transfer of all or part of our business, subject to appropriate confidentiality and legal safeguards.

Some providers act as our processors and may use information only on our instructions. Others may act as separate controllers for their own legitimate purposes; their privacy information will then apply as well.

8. International transfers

Some of our service providers, business contacts and project partners are located outside the United Kingdom, or use systems that can be accessed from other countries. This may involve an international transfer of personal information.

Where UK transfer rules apply, we use a lawful transfer mechanism appropriate to the circumstances. This may include UK adequacy regulations or appropriate safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to approved contractual clauses, together with any required assessment and additional measures. In limited cases, a statutory exception may apply.

You may contact us for further information about the relevant safeguards, subject to any confidentiality restrictions.

9. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably needed for the purpose for which it was collected, including support, legal, accounting, tax, insurance and record-keeping requirements.

In deciding a retention period, we consider the nature and sensitivity of the information, the project or relationship, contractual commitments, product and technical-support needs, the risk of harm, limitation periods and legal requirements. In general:

Routine enquiries and sample or CPD requests are kept for a reasonable follow-up period and then deleted or anonymised if no continuing relationship develops;
Project, specification and technical correspondence may be kept for the life of the project and for an appropriate period afterwards to support the project and maintain an accurate record of information supplied;
Customer, order, invoice and accounting records are normally kept for the period required by tax, accounting and other applicable law, commonly up to seven years;
Marketing records are kept while you remain subscribed, with a minimal suppression record kept afterwards where needed to honour an opt-out;
Unsuccessful recruitment records are normally deleted after a reasonable recruitment and claims period unless a longer period is agreed; and
Analytics and cookie information is retained according to our configured service settings and the lifetimes shown in Cookie Preferences.

We may retain information for longer if a dispute, claim, investigation, legal hold or overriding legal requirement applies. We may retain anonymous information that no longer identifies anyone.

10. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against accidental or unlawful loss, alteration, disclosure, access or misuse. Measures may include access controls, security services, backups, staff procedures and contractual protections for suppliers.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. If a personal-data breach occurs, we will assess it and notify affected people and the Information Commissioner’s Office where the law requires.

11. Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to:

Be informed about how your information is used;
Ask for access to your personal information and related information;
Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
Ask us to erase information in certain circumstances;
Ask us to restrict how information is used in certain circumstances;
Object to processing based on legitimate interests;
Object at any time to use of your information for direct marketing;
Receive certain information in a portable format where the right applies;
Withdraw consent at any time, without affecting earlier lawful processing; and
Ask for safeguards in relation to certain solely automated decisions.

These rights are not absolute and exemptions may apply. We do not currently use website information to make decisions about people based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

To exercise a right, email [email protected]. Please describe your request clearly. We may need to ask for information to confirm your identity and locate the relevant records. We normally respond without undue delay and within the period required by law. There is usually no charge, although the law permits a reasonable fee or refusal in limited circumstances.

12. Data-protection questions and complaints

If you have a question or believe we have not handled your personal information properly, please contact us at [email protected] or write to the address in section 1. Please state that your message is a data-protection complaint and explain what happened, what information is involved and what outcome you are seeking.

We will provide a clear route for complaints, acknowledge a data-protection complaint within 30 days, investigate it appropriately and tell you the outcome without undue delay, in accordance with applicable law.

We hope to resolve concerns directly. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Details are available at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/. We would appreciate the opportunity to address your concern first, but you do not have to contact us before approaching the ICO.

13. Third-party websites and services

Our website may link to third-party sites or services. We do not control their privacy practices. Please read the relevant privacy information before providing personal information or enabling a third-party service.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our practices, services or legal obligations change. The current version will be published on our website with its effective date. If a change is significant, we will take reasonable steps to bring it to the attention of affected people where required.

15. Contact us

For privacy questions, rights requests or complaints: