Privacy & Cookies

Hello there!

Thank you for checking out our privacy policy.  At THE COLLABORATIVE VA LTD we take your privacy seriously.  We’re committed to protecting your privacy and handling your information in a responsible way while you use our website and services.

We encourage you to read this policy alongside any other privacy notices we might provide, so you’re fully in the loop about how and why we use your information.

Who’s in charge of your data?

The controller of your data is THE COLLABORATIVE VA LTD and we can be contacted on: laura@thecollaborativeva.com

Not happy with something?

We’re committed to treating your personal data with respect, transparency, and care. If you ever have questions or concerns about how your data is used, we want to hear from you, and we’ll do our best to resolve things quickly and fairly.  Under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, you have the right to raise a complaint about how your personal data is handled. Here’s how:

• Step 1: Email us at laura@thecollaborativeva.com with a brief description of your concern. You don’t need to use legal language – just tell us what’s worrying you.
• Step 2: We’ll acknowledge your message and respond without undue delay, usually within 10 working days.
• Step 3: If you’re not satisfied with our response, you can escalate your concern to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

What type of data do we collect about you?

‘Personal data’ is information that identifies you. If we’ve removed your identity (by making the data anonymous), it won’t be classed as personal data. We might collect, use, store, and share various types of personal data about you as follows:

• Identity details such as first and last name, username or similar identifier, marital status and title, date of birth and gender.
• Contact details such as your billing address and delivery address, email address and telephone number.
• Technical information such as your internet protocol (IP address), your login data, browser type, version, browser plug-in types and versions, time zone setting and location, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access our website.
• Financial information such as your bank account and payment card details.
• Information about transactions like details about payments to and from you, and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
• Client data such as data relating to your clients that you pass to us in order for us to provide your services to you.
• Account details such as your username, password, purchases or orders made by you, and your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
• Usage information about how you use our website, products and services.
• Marketing information such as your preferences on receiving marketing from both us and third-parties, along with your communication preferences.

How do we collect your personal data?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you. The majority of the time, our information is collected directly when you contact us in the following ways:

• When you fill in any new client onboarding forms.
• When you complete any forms before or during an appointment.
• Verbally during discussions.
• Correspondence with us via post, phone, email or otherwise.
• When you apply for our services or any of our products.
• When you create an account on our website.
• When you subscribe to our service or publications;.
• When you request marketing communications to be sent to you.
• When you enter a competition, promotion or survey.
• When you give us feedback or contact us.

Another method we may use to collect data includes the use of automated technologies or interactions, like website cookies or other similar technologies. This includes information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns and information about your browsing activity if you visit another website that uses the same cookies as us. This means we receive information about how you use these third-party websites.

This data collection helps us to improve user experience, and to gather information about how you use our website. For more information, please refer to our Cookie Policy, which can be viewed further down this page.

We may also receive data from third-parties such as: 

• Online virtual assistant directories where you have posted your interest in virtual assistant services.
• Third parties who refer you to us, such as fellow virtual assistants or previous clients.
• Technical information from Analytics providers such as GOOGLE..
• Advertising and social media networks such as FACEBOOK, Instagram and LinkedIn.
• Search information providers such as GOOGLE.
• Publicly available sources, such as Companies House and the Electoral Register.

What are the purposes for which we use your personal data?

The purposes for which we will be using your data include:

• To register you as a new client.
• To respond to your enquiry about our services.
• To provide our services and to process and deliver any orders, including: a) to manage payments, fees and charges and b) to collect and recover money owed to us.
• To manage our relationship with you e.g., to notify you about changes to our terms of this privacy policy or to ask you to leave a review and/or take a survey.
• To send you relevant marketing information about our products and services.
• To enable you to partake in a prize draw, competition or complete a survey.
• To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data).
• To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you.
• To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences.
• To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you.

We rely on one or more of the following lawful conditions to process your data as outlined above:

• To fulfil our contract with you;
• For our legitimate interests; or
• To comply with legal obligations.

In some scenarios, we’ll ask for your consent, especially for collecting sensitive data. In most circumstances, generally, we do not obtain your consent for processing your personal data.  If we send you marketing communications and you no longer wish to receive them, you can opt out anytime by contacting us or clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ button on our marketing communications.

We may process your personal data for more than one lawful reason at a time, depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. If you’d like more information on the specific legal ground we are relying on, on occasions where we rely on more than one legal ground, please feel free to contact us.

Do we use Cookies?

Cookies help make our website work better for you, remembering your preferences and improving your experience. You can control cookie settings in your browser.  Cookies make your browsing experience on our site as smooth as possible, because they remember your preferences.

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. Please refer to our Cookie Policy further down this page.

Do we use third-party links?

Our website might link to third-party websites, tools and apps. Clicking on these links may allow third parties to collect or share your data.

We do not control said websites and are not responsible for said websites’ privacy policies. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

Do we ever share your personal data?

We take your data’s security seriously and only allow certain people to access it.

We may share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes as stated further above.

• Service providers, acting as processors who provide IT and system administration services such as website maintenance, social media management or database management.
• Card merchants and payment processing providers who host your card details or process payments on our behalf.
• Professional advisers, acting as processors or joint controllers, including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
• HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities, acting as processors or joint controllers, based in the UK who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.

All of the above third parties have a requirement to respect the security of your personal data. We do not permit them to use your personal data for their own purposes – they are only permitted to process your data for specified purposes in line with our instructions.

Do we use Artificial Intelligence?

• We integrate artificial intelligence (AI) tools and technologies into our service offerings to enhance efficiency, productivity, and the quality of our services. These AI tools may assist with a variety of our business tasks. 
• We ensure that the use of AI is transparent and that clients are informed about the extent to which AI tools are used in the course of delivering our services.  The tools we are using are set out in the table below. Where the tool is provided by a third party provider, they will be acting as a data processor for us, and so we have included a link to their privacy policy which you should read to check you are comfortable with their use of your data.

• Any data processed by AI tools will be handled in compliance with applicable data protection legislation. Please see our Privacy Policy for further information about the data we are collecting and processing when using these AI systems. We will ensure that all AI tools used are configured to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of client data.  Please be assured that we implement security safeguards to protect any data input into these AI systems.
• Limitations of AI: Although we strive to ensure accuracy and reliability in our AI tools, they are not without limitations and we do not guarantee their accuracy, completeness, or suitability. It is important that you independently verify your satisfaction with AI-generated outputs before relying on them in any capacity.

Your Rights:

• Request Information: You have the right to request further details regarding our use of AI in your particular case.
• Object to Automated Decision-Making: In accordance with the UK GDPR, you may object to decisions made solely by AI that have a legal or similarly significant impact on you.
• Access and Amend Data: You may ask us to review how your personal data is processed by AI tools and request corrections if necessary.

Please contact us at laura@thecollaborativeva.com if you would like to exercise any of the above rights.

Do we ever transfer your data internationally?

We do not transfer your data outside the United Kingdom and European Economic Area (EEA).

How secure is your data with us?

We have strong security measures in place to keep your personal information safe. Only authorised individuals who have a need to know are granted access to your data, such as our employees or trusted partners. They will process your data in accordance with our confidentiality terms.

In the rare circumstances that there is a personal data breach, we have procedures in place and will notify you, along with any applicable regulator, when we’re legally required to.

What is our process for retaining your data?

We only keep your data as long as necessary for the reasons we collected it.

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including contact information, identity details, financial information and data relating to your transactions with us) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.

For information that does not fall under the definition of basic, to determine the appropriate retention time, we look at what kind of data it is, how sensitive it is, the risks if it’s misused, why we need it, and if there are other ways to achieve the same goals. We also consider applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting and other requirements.

What are your legal rights in relation to your data?

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Access: You have the right to ask us what personal data we hold about you and to receive a copy of that data. This is called a Subject Access Request (SAR).

We’ll respond within one calendar month, but if we need to verify your identity first, we may pause the clock while we do so. This helps protect your data and ensures we’re sharing it with the right person.  If your request is complex or repetitive, we may apply proportionality rules under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, which allow us to limit the scope or extend the response time. We’ll always explain why and keep you informed.  To make a request, just email us at laura@thecollaborativeva.com with the subject line “DSAR Request”. You don’t need to use legal language – just let us know what you’d like to see or understand.  If you’re unhappy with how we handle your request, you can raise a concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at www.ico.org.uk

Correction: If the personal data we have about you is incomplete or incorrect, you can ask us to correct it.

Erasure:  You can ask us to delete your personal data. It’s important to note, however, that there might be legal reasons that prevent us from fulfilling this request. If such reasons exist, we will inform you when you make your request.

Objection: In certain situations, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data.

Restriction of Processing: You can request that we restrict the processing of your personal data under specific circumstances.

Data Portability: You have the right to request the transfer of your personal data directly to you or to a third party of your choice.

Withdrawal of Consent: At any point where we rely on your consent to process your personal data, you have the right to withdraw this consent. Withdrawal of consent will not affect the legality of the processing done before the consent was withdrawn. Should you withdraw your consent, we might be unable to provide you with certain products or services. We will inform you if that is the case when you withdraw your consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

We won’t charge any fees for you to request access to your personal data. However, a reasonable fee may be charged if your request is clearly unjustified, repetitive or excessive. We also reserve the right to not comply in this scenario. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

Changes and Contact

We regularly review our privacy policy. Please keep us updated if your personal data changes. If you have any questions or need to exercise your rights, just get in touch.

Thanks for reading our privacy policy. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.