Privacy Policy

Clientworth is a UK business consultancy run by Pearse Carson as a sole trader, trading as Clientworth. We help financial services businesses improve client engagement, retention, relationship management and revenue performance.

Pearse Carson, trading as Clientworth, is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy.

Privacy contact: pearse@clientworth.co.uk
Website: https://clientworth.co.uk (opens in a new tab)

This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we use it, and your rights.

Depending on how you deal with us, we may collect:

• Professional contact details: name, job title, employer, business email address, business phone number and professional profile links.
• Correspondence and meeting information: what you tell us in emails, calls, meetings and other business communications.
• Booking details: the information you enter when booking a discovery call.
• Client engagement information: business contact details and records needed to deliver and invoice our consultancy services.
• Technical information: limited data processed when you visit our website, such as your IP address, browser type and the pages requested, which our hosting provider uses to deliver the site and keep it secure.

We do not ask for, or intentionally collect, special category (sensitive) personal information through our website or discovery-call booking.

• Directly from you, for example when you email us, book a call or work with us.
• From your employer or colleagues, when they introduce you or involve you in an engagement.
• From publicly available professional sources, such as company websites, business directories and professional networking sites.

We plan to use specialist business-contact data providers, such as Apollo, for business development in future. This policy will be updated before we begin using any such provider.

We only use personal information where UK data protection law allows. In summary:

• Responding to enquiries and arranging discovery calls: legitimate interests, or steps taken at your request before entering into a contract.
• Delivering and managing consultancy services: performance of a contract where you are our client, or legitimate interests where you are a contact at a client business.
• Business development and direct marketing to business contacts: legitimate interests, and consent where electronic marketing law requires it.
• Operating and securing our website: legitimate interests.
• Keeping tax, accounting and other legally required records: legal obligation.

Our legitimate interests are running and developing a B2B consultancy, contacting decision-makers whose organisations may benefit from our services, maintaining business relationships, and keeping our website and systems secure. When we rely on legitimate interests, we consider whether the use is necessary and balance it against your rights and reasonable expectations.

Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time by emailing pearse@clientworth.co.uk.

We may contact professionals whose organisations could reasonably benefit from our services, using business contact details from the sources described in section 3.

Electronic marketing is also governed by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), which set separate rules on when we may send marketing emails and make marketing calls. We aim to follow those rules alongside this policy.

You can object to direct marketing at any time, free of charge, by replying to our message or emailing pearse@clientworth.co.uk. We will stop direct marketing to you and keep a minimal record of your objection so that we do not contact you again.

Discovery calls are booked through a Google Calendar booking page and held on Google Meet. We use the information you provide to schedule the meeting, send confirmations, provide the video-call link and follow up on the conversation.

The booking page is provided by Google and may use Google's own cookies and technologies. See Google's Privacy Policy (opens in a new tab) for details.

We do not routinely record discovery calls. Any proposed recording will be explained separately in advance.

Our website is designed to collect as little information as possible:

• The website's own code sets no cookies.
• It uses no analytics scripts, advertising pixels or browser storage.
• Fonts and images are hosted on our own website, so loading a page does not contact third-party font or image services.
• The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is stored or sent to us.

The website is hosted on Cloudflare, which processes technical information such as IP addresses and request details to deliver the site and protect it against malicious traffic. Depending on its security settings, Cloudflare may set cookies that are strictly necessary for security, for example to distinguish people from automated bots. Strictly necessary cookies do not require consent.

If we introduce analytics, advertising or other non-essential technologies, we will ask for consent where required and update this policy first.

We use these service providers to run Clientworth:

• Cloudflare: website hosting and security.
• Google (Google Workspace): business email, calendar, appointment booking and video meetings.

These providers process information on our behalf under their data processing terms. We may also share information where required by law, or with professional advisers where needed to run the business or meet legal obligations.

We do not sell personal information.

Some of our service providers, including Cloudflare and Google, may process personal information outside the United Kingdom. Where personal information is transferred outside the UK, UK data protection law requires appropriate safeguards, such as UK adequacy regulations or approved contractual terms. We rely on the transfer safeguards set out in our providers' data processing terms, and will check the safeguards of any new provider, including any business-contact data provider, before using it.

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purpose it was collected for. Our retention rules are:

• Business development contacts: up to 24 months after the last meaningful interaction, unless there is a justified reason to keep them longer.
• Enquiries and discovery calls that do not lead to an engagement: up to 12 months after the last interaction.
• Client business, tax and accounting records: for the period required by law. For a UK sole trader this is typically at least five years after the relevant Self Assessment submission deadline, and longer where legally justified.
• Marketing objections: a minimal record, kept for as long as needed to respect your request.

When information is no longer needed, we delete it or anonymise it.

We do not make decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that produce legal or similarly significant effects on individuals.

Under UK data protection law, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Have inaccurate information corrected.
• Have information erased in certain circumstances.
• Restrict how we use your information in certain circumstances.
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Receive your information in a portable format, where applicable.
• Withdraw consent, where we rely on consent.

Your right to object to direct marketing is absolute: if you object, we will stop.

To exercise any of these rights, email pearse@clientworth.co.uk. We will respond within one month, as required by law, and may need to confirm your identity first.

If you have a concern about how we handle your personal information, please contact us first at pearse@clientworth.co.uk. You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk (opens in a new tab).

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, disclosure, misuse or loss. Access to business systems and information is limited to what is needed to run the business.

We may update this policy to reflect changes to our business, services, technology or legal requirements. Updates will be published on this page with a revised date.

For any question about this policy or your personal information, contact Pearse Carson, trading as Clientworth, at pearse@clientworth.co.uk.