Privacy Policy

Introduction

Blue Jay Accountants Limited is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data responsibly. This policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard information when you use this website or contact us about our services.

Blue Jay Accountants Limited is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office as a data controller, registration reference ZB723036.

Information We Collect

When you interact with our website or contact us, we may collect personal information including your name, email address, telephone number, and details about your business or enquiry.

We may also collect technical information such as IP address, browser type, and website usage data to improve the performance and security of our website.

How We Use Your Information

The information we collect is used to respond to enquiries, deliver accountancy services, improve our website, and maintain internal records.

We only process personal data where we have a lawful basis to do so, including responding to enquiries, fulfilling contractual services, or complying with legal obligations.

Legal Basis for Processing

We process personal data under Article 6 UK GDPR using the lawful bases that apply to each activity:

• Legitimate Interests: for operating and improving tax diagnostic and forecasting tools, maintaining website security, and responding to service-related enquiries where this is proportionate and does not override your rights.
• Consent: for marketing communications, updates, and non-essential follow-up contact. You can withdraw consent at any time using unsubscribe links or by contacting us directly.
• Contract and Legal Obligation: where processing is required to deliver agreed services or to comply with accounting, tax, and regulatory requirements.

Data Storage and Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, disclosure, or misuse. This includes encryption in transit (HTTPS) for all form submissions, access controls on mailboxes and records, and restricting personal data to staff who need it to perform their role.

Personal data is only retained for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, or to meet legal and regulatory requirements. The periods below apply to data processed through this website:

• Enquiry and consultation-booking submissions: retained for up to 24 months from the last contact, then deleted unless you become a client.
• Calculator inputs (diagnostic tools): processed in your browser and not stored on our servers unless you choose to send them to us through a linked enquiry form. If sent, they are treated as an enquiry submission.
• Client records (once engaged): retained for at least 7 years after the end of the engagement to comply with HMRC, Companies Act, and anti-money-laundering record-keeping obligations.
• Website technical logs: retained for up to 90 days for security and abuse-prevention purposes.
• Marketing consent records: retained while your consent is active and for a reasonable period after withdrawal to evidence compliance.

Where a processor (for example, Formspree for form email forwarding) holds data on our behalf, retention within that processor's systems is governed by its own published policy in addition to the periods above.

Sharing Information

We do not sell or rent personal information to third parties.

We share limited personal data with the following processors to operate the website and deliver our services. Each processor acts on our written instructions and is bound by appropriate confidentiality and security obligations.

• Formspree (United States): receives contact and calculator form submissions and forwards them to us by email.
• Cloudflare, Inc. (United States): provides the Turnstile anti-bot challenge that protects our forms from automated abuse.
• Google LLC (United States): provides the Google tag and Google Analytics. These only load if you accept analytics cookies.

We may also share information with our regulators (CIMA, HMRC, Companies House, the Information Commissioner's Office) where we are legally required to do so, and with professional advisers retained under written confidentiality where necessary to deliver agreed services.

International Transfers

The processors named above are based in the United States. Where personal data is transferred outside the United Kingdom, we rely on one of the following safeguards as required by UK GDPR Article 46:

• The UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, where the receiving processor is self-certified under the Framework, or
• The UK International Data Transfer Agreement, or the UK Addendum to the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, where the Framework does not apply.

You can request further information about the safeguard applied to a specific processor by contacting us using the details below.

Cookies

Our website uses a small number of cookies. Essential cookies are required for the site to function and are always set. Analytics cookies, set by the Google tag and Google Analytics, are only loaded if you accept them through the cookie banner shown on your first visit. If you reject, no analytics cookies are loaded.

You can change your choice at any time by clearing site data for this domain in your browser, which will trigger the cookie banner on your next visit.

Your Data Rights

Under UK GDPR (Articles 15 to 22) and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the following rights in relation to personal data we hold about you:

• Right of access (Article 15): to ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, together with information on how it is processed.
• Right to rectification (Article 16): to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Right to erasure (Article 17): to ask us to delete personal data where we no longer have a lawful basis to hold it. This right is not absolute and does not override our statutory record-keeping obligations (for example, HMRC and anti-money-laundering retention rules).
• Right to restriction (Article 18): to ask us to pause processing of your personal data while a query about its accuracy or our lawful basis is resolved.
• Right to data portability (Article 20): to receive personal data you provided to us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means.
• Right to object (Article 21): to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and an absolute right to object to direct marketing at any time.
• Rights relating to automated decision-making (Article 22): not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects. We do not make such decisions about you; our website calculators are diagnostic tools and do not decide anything about your engagement with us.
• Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below. We respond within one month of receiving a valid request, extendable by up to two further months for complex requests (we will tell you if this applies). There is no fee for most requests.

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your personal data or a rights request, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, by calling 0303 123 1113, or by writing to Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. We would, however, appreciate the chance to address your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us first if you can.

Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy or how we handle personal data, please contact:

Policy Updates

This privacy policy may be updated periodically to reflect changes in legal requirements or our business practices. The latest version will always be available on this page.