Privacy Policy

This policy explains what we do with your personal information when you use our website or ask us for a visibility scan. We have written it in plain English, because you should be able to understand what happens to your data without a law degree.

1Who we are

Pinlink ("we", "us", "our") provides Google Maps and AI search visibility services to trades and local businesses in the United Kingdom.

• Email: info@pinlink.co.uk

We are the "data controller" for the personal information described in this policy. That simply means we decide how and why it is used.

2What information we collect

We only collect what we need to answer your enquiry and provide our services.

If you start working with us, we also collect the information you give on our client setup form: your name and contact details, your business information, and your Google Business Profile details. We use this only to set up and carry out the service you have asked for.

3Our lawful basis for using it

Under UK data protection law we must have a lawful basis for using your information. Ours are:

• Consent: you chose to fill in our form and asked us to contact you. You can withdraw this at any time.
• Legitimate interests: to respond to enquiries, provide our services, and keep proper business records. We only rely on this where it does not override your rights.
• Contract: where you become a client, to deliver the services we have agreed.
• Legal obligation: where we must keep records, for example for tax purposes.

4Who we share it with

We do not sell your data. We never pass it to third parties for their own marketing. We do use a small number of trusted suppliers who process data on our behalf:

• Formspree (form delivery): enquiries submitted through our website are delivered to us via Formspree, which processes the details you enter purely to pass them on to us.
• Vercel (website hosting): serves this website to your browser.
• Network Solutions (email): hosts our @pinlink.co.uk email so we can receive and manage your correspondence.
• Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager (website analytics): only if you accept analytics cookies, Google collects anonymous usage statistics for us (pages viewed, buttons used, whether a form was sent) so we can improve the site. We never send your name, email address or phone number to Google Analytics. See section 6.
• Google Sheets (our own Google account): a copy of each enquiry is also saved to a private spreadsheet, so nothing is lost if an email goes astray. The row stores what you typed plus the page you were on, the campaign or website that brought you here and, only if you accepted analytics cookies, your Google Analytics visitor ID. If our usual form service is unavailable, the notification email to us is sent from that Google account instead.
• Google Fonts: this website loads its typeface from Google's servers, which means your IP address is shared with Google when the page loads. If you would prefer this did not happen, you can block third-party font loading in your browser.

Some of these providers are based in, or store data in, the United States. Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as the UK extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (the "UK-US Data Bridge"), International Data Transfer Agreements, or UK adequacy regulations.

5When the Pinlink Assistant answers your calls

If you are a Pinlink client, part of our service is a Pinlink Assistant that answers calls you cannot take. When it does, it answers the call, records it and creates an AI transcription, and handles the personal information of the person calling you, such as their name, phone number, the reason for their call, and any appointment or job details they give.

For this information, you, our client, are the data controller and Pinlink acts as your data processor. We only handle your callers' data on your instructions, to pass on the message and help book the work, under a separate agreement between us. It is your responsibility to tell your own customers that their call may be answered, recorded and transcribed by an assistant, and how their data is used. We will help you do that.

We keep call recordings and transcripts only as long as we need them to provide the service, then delete them. We use trusted providers to run the Assistant: Twilio for the phone calls, and an AI voice provider (currently Fish Audio, and we may use ElevenLabs) for the voice and transcription. Where these providers are based outside the UK, the safeguards described in section 4 apply.

6Cookies and analytics

We use Google Analytics 4, loaded through Google Tag Manager, to understand how people use this site: which pages are viewed, which buttons are used, and whether an enquiry form was sent. We use this only to improve the site. We do not use advertising cookies, and nothing about your visit is used to follow you around the internet.

Analytics cookies are set only if you choose Accept analytics in the cookie notice. If you decline, Google Analytics runs without cookies and receives only aggregate, non-identifying signals, so we can still count visits and enquiries without recognising your device between visits. You can change your choice at any time using the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page.

• _ga, _ga_* (Google Analytics, only with your consent): tell visits and sessions apart. Kept for up to 2 years.
• pl_consent (local storage, essential): remembers your cookie choice for 6 months.
• pl_attr (local storage, only with your consent): remembers which campaign or advert brought you to the site, for up to 30 days, so we know which of our marketing works. It contains no personal information.

Our client setup form saves your progress in your own browser, using local storage, so you can leave and come back without losing your answers. This stays on your device, is not sent to us until you press Send, is cleared automatically once you submit, and is never used to track you.

7How long we keep it

• Enquiries that do not become clients: up to 12 months, then deleted.
• Client records: for the duration of our work together and for 6 years afterwards, to meet legal and accounting requirements.
• Correspondence: no longer than necessary for the purpose it was sent.

8How we protect it

We use reputable providers with encryption in transit, restrict access to the people who need it, and use strong, unique passwords with two-factor authentication where available. No system is completely secure, but we take these obligations seriously.

9Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Have inaccurate information corrected
• Ask us to delete your data, where there is no good reason for us to keep it
• Object to, or ask us to restrict, how we use it
• Ask us to transfer your data to another provider
• Withdraw consent at any time, where consent is our basis for using it

To exercise any of these, email info@pinlink.co.uk. We will respond within one month, and it will not cost you anything.

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that would have a legal or similarly significant effect on you.

10Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's data protection regulator:

• Website: ico.org.uk
• Helpline: 0303 123 1113

11Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle personal data, we will update this page and revise the "last updated" date above. Please check back occasionally.

12Contact us

Any questions about this policy or your data: info@pinlink.co.uk.