Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Trusted Connections uses personal data when you visit this website, make an enquiry, use the client portal to view documents, complete a client-shared Income / Expenditure Planner, or make a privacy request. It is written for people in the UK and forms part of the information provided when data is collected.

Last updated: 20 September 2026.

Controller and contact

Group Consult Services Limited (company no. 12021043), trading as Trusted Connections, is responsible for the personal data described in this policy. Its registered office is 35 Bransdale Drive, Ashton-In-Makerfield, Wigan, England, WN4 8WA. To contact us about data protection, email Derek@groupcsltd.com, make a privacy request online, or use the contact page and clearly label your message “Privacy request”. We may ask for proportionate information to verify identity or authority before acting.

Personal data we collect

When you make an enquiry, we collect the name, practice or organisation, work email address, telephone number, selected service and message you provide. When you use the client portal, we collect account and security-audit information needed to manage and protect access to documents shared with you. When an administrator writes to a manually entered email recipient, we retain the recipient address and outbound message record for the relevant professional communication. When a portal client shares an Income / Expenditure Planner with a customer, we collect the respondent’s name, email address, optional partner details, and the monthly income and expenditure figures entered in that planner. When an administrator creates a client portal account, we hold the client’s account email address, password hash, account status and security-audit information. We also collect the information needed to manage a privacy request.

A document shared with a client or information supplied through a planner may contain information about another person, including special-category information. Please provide only information that is relevant and necessary, use a reference rather than a full name where possible, and ensure you are authorised to provide it. Do not submit passwords, payment-card information or unnecessary sensitive information through website forms or the portal.

Purposes and lawful bases

We use enquiry, client-portal and related CRM information to respond to requests, take steps requested before a contract, deliver and administer a service where one is in place, maintain appropriate records, protect the security of the website and private workspaces, and deal with legal claims or obligations. A portal client that shares an Income / Expenditure Planner with its own customer is responsible for identifying the appropriate purpose and lawful basis and for providing any information required to that customer. Trusted Connections stores and makes the completed planner available to that portal client through its protected workspace. The applicable lawful basis depends on the purpose and relationship. It may include taking steps at your request before contract, performance of a contract, compliance with a legal obligation, or our legitimate interests in operating a secure and responsive professional service. We document the basis for each processing activity.

Optional practical updates are separate from service communications. We use email marketing only where a valid PECR route and appropriate UK GDPR basis apply. Where consent is used, it is optional, specific and may be withdrawn at any time. We keep a suppression record where required to ensure that an objection to marketing is honoured.

Recipients, processors and international transfers

Access is limited to authorised Trusted Connections administrators and to service providers that host and secure the website, database and private document storage, or otherwise provide contracted operational support. They process personal data only as needed to provide their service and under the relevant contractual and security arrangements. We do not sell personal data. We may disclose information where required by law or to protect legal rights. Where a provider processes data outside the UK, we will use an appropriate UK GDPR transfer safeguard and provide further information on request.

Retention

We keep information only for as long as it is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including managing a relationship, responding to a request, resolving a query, maintaining security records and meeting legal, contractual or record-keeping obligations. Enquiries and optional marketing records are reviewed against the last meaningful contact. Client portal documents and CRM records are reviewed against the relevant relationship and documented retention schedule. Information that is no longer required is securely deleted or anonymised. The current retention schedule must be approved by the business before public launch and reviewed whenever services change.

Your rights and how to use them

Depending on the circumstances, you may ask us to access, correct, erase, restrict or receive a copy of your personal data, or object to processing based on legitimate interests. You have an absolute right to object to direct marketing. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. You can use the privacy request form, contact us in another way, or make a request verbally. You do not need to use a special form or have a portal account to exercise your rights.

We normally respond without undue delay and within one calendar month. Where the law allows an extension because a request is complex or numerous, we will explain this within the first month. Some rights, including deletion, are not absolute; if we cannot fully comply, we will explain the decision, the right to complain to the ICO and the available review route.

Cookies and private access

This website does not use advertising, analytics, profiling or other non-essential cookies. It uses only strictly necessary security-session cookies when an authorised person asks to access the private administrator workspace or client portal. These cannot be used to track visitors across other websites. See the Cookie Notice for the names, purposes and durations of the essential cookies. If non-essential analytics, marketing or preference technologies are added in future, we will provide a choice before they are set.

Automated decisions

Trusted Connections does not make decisions about you solely by automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.

Privacy questions

Do I need a portal account to make a request?

No. You can use the privacy request form, contact us in another way or make a request verbally. The portal is not required to exercise your data-protection rights.

How do I stop practical updates?

Use the unsubscribe route in the message, make an objection request online or contact us. Service communications that are necessary to manage an existing relationship are treated separately from optional marketing.

Will a deletion request remove everything immediately?

Not always. We assess whether information must be kept for a lawful purpose, such as a legal obligation, complaint, legal claim or security record. We will record and explain the outcome.

Complaints

Please contact us first if you have a concern. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data-protection regulator, through its complaints service.