Privacy Policy
We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your information in accordance with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
1 Who We Are
HiveSuite Limited ("HiveSuite", "we", "us", "our") is a company registered in England and Wales (Company No. 16791803). We are the data controller for the personal data we collect and process through our website and platform.
We provide business management software - including HiveCRM, HivePlanner, HiveIntel, HiveCrew, and the Customer Portal - for UK contractors and mobile service businesses.
2 Information We Collect
We collect the following categories of personal data:
Account and Contact Data
- Name, email address, phone number
- Business name, address, and VAT number
- Account credentials (passwords are hashed)
- Profile and account preferences
Billing Data
- Subscription plan and billing history
- Payment method details (handled directly by Stripe - we never see or store raw card numbers)
Business Data You Enter
- Your customers' names, addresses, and contact details
- Job details, quotes, invoices, and purchase orders
- Team member information and time tracking records
- Inventory and stock records
- Documents and file attachments
Usage and Technical Data
- Pages visited, features used, and session duration
- Device type, browser, and operating system
- IP address and approximate location
- Location data from the mobile app (field team tracking, where enabled)
- Error logs and crash reports
3 Legal Basis for Processing
Under UK GDPR, we rely on the following lawful bases to process your personal data:
Contract performance
Processing necessary to deliver HiveSuite services you have subscribed to, including account management, billing, and support.
Legal obligation
Processing required to comply with UK law, including financial record-keeping and responding to lawful requests from authorities.
Legitimate interests
Processing for fraud prevention, platform security, product improvement, and analytics, where our interests do not override your rights.
Consent
For marketing communications and non-essential cookies, where you have given us explicit consent. You may withdraw consent at any time.
4 How We Use Your Information
We use the data we collect to:
- Provide, maintain, and improve HiveSuite services
- Process subscription payments and manage your account
- Deliver customer support and respond to your enquiries
- Send transactional communications (account notifications, invoices, important service updates)
- Send marketing communications (where you have consented, or we have a legitimate interest as an existing customer)
- Analyse platform usage to guide product development
- Detect, prevent, and investigate fraud, security incidents, and misuse
- Comply with legal and regulatory requirements
- Power HiveIntel reporting features - your business data is processed to generate analytics and reports for your own use only; it is not shared or used to train any external AI model
5 Data Sharing and Third-Party Processors
We never sell your personal data. We share data only where necessary to operate our services, with the following trusted processors:
Stripe
Payment processing. Stripe handles all card transactions directly and holds its own PCI-DSS certification. We do not store payment card numbers. See Stripe's Privacy Policy.
Microsoft Clarity
Website analytics (heatmaps and session recordings). Data is anonymised and used only to improve our website experience.
Hosting and infrastructure providers
Our platform runs on servers located in the United Kingdom or European Economic Area. All providers are contractually bound to protect your data.
We may also disclose your data where required by law, to enforce our terms of service, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of HiveSuite, our users, or others.
6 Customer Portal
HiveSuite includes a Customer Portal that allows your customers to log in, view jobs and quotes, approve work, pay invoices, and send messages. When you enable the Customer Portal for your business:
- Your customers' personal data is processed by HiveSuite on your behalf, as a data processor acting on your instructions
- You remain the data controller for your customers' data and are responsible for having a lawful basis to share it with your portal
- We will not use your customers' data for any purpose other than delivering the portal service to you
7 Data Security
We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data against unauthorised access, loss, or disclosure, including:
- Encryption of data in transit (TLS) and at rest
- Hashed password storage
- Role-based access controls limiting who can access your data within HiveSuite
- Regular security reviews and monitoring
In the event of a personal data breach that is likely to affect your rights and freedoms, we will notify the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours and, where required, inform affected individuals without undue delay.
8 Data Retention
We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or as required by law:
- Active accounts: data is retained for the duration of your subscription
- After cancellation: you may export your business data within 30 days of termination. After this period, your data will be deleted or anonymised
- Billing records: retained for 6 years to comply with HMRC requirements
- Support records: retained for 3 years after the interaction is closed
9 Your Rights Under UK GDPR
You have the following rights regarding your personal data. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@hivesuite.co.uk. We will respond within one month.
Right of access
Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you (subject access request).
Right to rectification
Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
Right to erasure
Request deletion of your personal data where there is no compelling reason for us to keep it.
Right to restriction
Ask us to restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances (e.g. while accuracy is disputed).
Right to data portability
Receive your personal data in a structured, machine-readable format and transfer it to another service.
Right to object
Object to processing based on legitimate interests, or to direct marketing at any time.
10 Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use cookies and similar technologies on our website. These fall into the following categories:
Essential cookies
Required for the platform to function (e.g. keeping you logged in, remembering your session). These cannot be disabled.
Analytics cookies
Help us understand how visitors use our website so we can improve it. We use Microsoft Clarity for anonymised analytics. You can opt out via your browser settings or the Microsoft Clarity opt-out.
You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings. Note that disabling some cookies may affect platform functionality.
11 Marketing Communications
If you sign up for a trial or become a customer, we may send you product updates, tips, and information about new features that may be relevant to your business. We rely on legitimate interests to do this where you are an existing customer, and on your consent for non-customers.
You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by clicking the "unsubscribe" link in any email we send, or by contacting us at support@hivesuite.co.uk. Unsubscribing from marketing does not affect transactional emails (such as invoices or account alerts).
12 International Data Transfers
Our infrastructure is primarily based in the United Kingdom and European Economic Area. Where we use third-party processors that may transfer data outside the UK or EEA (such as Stripe), we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, including adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses approved by the ICO.
13 Children's Privacy
HiveSuite is a business platform and is not intended for use by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected data from a child, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
14 Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the updated policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date at the top. For significant changes, we may also notify you by email.
15 Contact Us
If you have any questions about this policy, wish to exercise your rights, or want to raise a privacy concern, please get in touch:
HiveSuite Limited - Company No. 16791803 - Registered in England and Wales