Privacy Policy

The UK Academy of Mould Experts (UKAME), operated by UKAME Ltd, is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website, use our services, or participate in our training programmes.

UKAME Ltd is the data controller for the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Please read this privacy policy carefully. If you do not agree with the terms of this privacy policy, please do not access the site.

2.1 Personal Information

When you register for our services, we may collect:

• Name, email address, and phone number
• Billing information and payment details (processed securely via Stripe)
• Professional qualifications and certifications
• Company affiliation and job title
• Training history and assessment results

2.2 Usage Data

We may automatically collect certain information when you visit our website:

• IP address and browser type
• Pages visited and time spent on pages
• Referring websites and search terms
• Device information

We process your personal data under the following lawful bases:

• Contract: Processing necessary for providing our membership services, processing payments, managing your account, and delivering training programmes.
• Consent: Sending marketing communications, newsletters, and promotional offers. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
• Legitimate interest: Improving our services, maintaining security, and preventing fraud.
• Legal obligation: Complying with applicable laws and regulations.

We may use the information we collect for various purposes:

• Provide, operate, and maintain our membership services
• Process transactions and send related information (invoices, receipts, payment confirmations)
• Verify your identity and process membership applications
• Send administrative information and service updates
• Respond to enquiries and provide customer support
• Send marketing and promotional communications (with your consent)
• Improve our website and services
• Maintain our professional directory of members and trained professionals
• Pass quote enquiries to UKAME member companies covering your area, with your consent (see Disclosure of Your Information below)
• Send membership renewal reminders and training refresher notifications

5.1 Transactional Emails

We send essential service emails related to your membership and account. These include welcome emails, payment confirmations, renewal reminders, payment failure notifications, cancellation confirmations, and training refresher reminders. These emails are necessary for the performance of our contract with you and do not require separate consent.

5.2 Marketing Emails

With your consent, we may send you marketing communications including news, industry updates, promotional offers, and membership-related announcements. You can opt in to marketing emails during registration.

5.3 Unsubscribing

You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by:

• Clicking the "Unsubscribe" link included in every marketing email
• Adjusting your email preferences in your Account Settings
• Contacting us at info@mouldexperts.org.uk

Please note that unsubscribing from marketing emails does not affect essential service communications related to your membership.

We may share your information in the following situations:

• Service providers: We use Stripe for payment processing, Resend for email delivery, and Supabase for data hosting. These providers process data on our behalf under appropriate data processing agreements.
• Directory listings: If you opt in to the UKAME directory, your name, company, location, and professional details will be publicly visible.
• Quote enquiries: If you request quotes through our website (for example on our mould remediation services page), your enquiry and contact details (name, email, phone number, location, and your description of the problem) are shared with UKAME member companies covering your selected region so they can contact you with quotes. This happens only with your explicit consent, given by ticking the box on the enquiry form, and more than one member may contact you. Members receive your details solely to respond to your enquiry, and any contract for work is between you and the member company.
• Legal obligations: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, or legal processes.
• Protection of rights: To protect and defend our rights and property.
• With your consent: For any other purpose with your explicit consent.

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

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information, including encryption in transit (TLS/SSL), secure password hashing, and access controls. Payment information is handled securely by Stripe and is never stored on our servers. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide our services. If you cancel your membership, we will retain your data for a reasonable period to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. You can request deletion of your data at any time (see Your Rights below).

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Right of access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. You can export your data directly from your Account Settings.
• Right to rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure: Request deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances.
• Right to restrict processing: Request that we limit the processing of your data.
• Right to data portability: Receive your data in a structured, commonly used format.
• Right to object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes.
• Right to withdraw consent: Withdraw your consent for marketing communications at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before withdrawal.

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the details provided below or manage your preferences in your Account Settings.

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to maintain your session and improve your experience. We use essential cookies required for the website to function (such as authentication tokens) and analytical cookies to understand how visitors use our site. You can control cookie preferences through your browser settings.

Our website offers two AI assistants: a text chat widget, and a voice assistant you can open from the site menu. Both are optional. You can use the whole website without either of them.

11.1 Voice input

When you use the voice assistant, your speech is transcribed by your own web browser using its built-in speech recognition, not by UKAME. Depending on the browser you use, this means your audio may be sent to that browser vendor for transcription. Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge send audio to Google's speech recognition servers. Safari uses Apple's. This processing is governed by that vendor's privacy policy, not ours.

UKAME never receives, records or stores your audio. We only receive the text your browser produces. If you would rather not use browser speech recognition at all, type your question into the assistant instead. The typed input works exactly the same way and involves no audio.

11.2 What we store

We store the text of your questions and the assistant's replies, so that we can improve the assistant and understand what visitors are looking for. Please do not enter sensitive personal information, or information about other people, into either assistant.

To stop the assistant being abused, we also store a one-way cryptographic hash of your IP address. This is used only to apply usage limits. We do not store your IP address itself, and the hash cannot be reversed to recover it.

If the assistant cannot answer something and you choose to give your name and email address so we can follow up, that becomes an enquiry record and is handled in the same way as any other enquiry described in this policy. Giving your details is always optional.

11.3 How answers are generated

Answers are generated by an AI language model provided by Anthropic. The text of your question is sent to Anthropic for processing in order to produce a reply. Answers are AI generated and may occasionally be incomplete or out of date, so please check anything important against the relevant page or contact us directly.

Our service providers may process data outside the UK. Where this occurs, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as Standard Contractual Clauses or adequacy decisions, to protect your personal data.

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your data rights, or want to make a complaint, please contact us at:

• UKAME Ltd
• Email: info@mouldexperts.org.uk
• Phone: 020 8058 9734

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if you believe your data protection rights have been violated. The ICO can be contacted at ico.org.uk.