Legal · Data protection
What we hold, why, and for how long.
This statement covers the public website, enquiries, arranging conversations and proportionate research into potential business relationships. Client engagements carry their own contractual and data-handling terms.
Information you choose to send
Handling agreed before work starts
HubSpot loads only at your request
Contact us to exercise your rights
Who controls this data
The data controller is Inference Inst Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 16676252, trading as Inference Institute. UK GDPR gives you the right to know who holds your data under a name you can look up, which is a different thing from the name on the door.
Public site
The main website is statically published. There are no user accounts. Online booking is not available. You can arrange a conversation by email. Configured enquiry forms are provided by HubSpot and load only when you request them. This site does not install advertising trackers. Optional traffic measurement depends on the build configuration — see Cookies & analytics.
Enquiries & forms
Email links open your own email client with a suggested subject. The message is sent by you, from your provider, to our inbox. Online enquiry and sample-report forms, where connected, use HubSpot. You choose whether to load a form or contact us by email. Loading the form sends browser and request information to HubSpot. Submitting it sends the information shown in its fields so we can respond or provide the requested excerpt.
We receive what you choose to send, and use it to respond, assess the enquiry and keep an appropriate business record. Please do not send confidential system detail, personal data or production records by email; we will agree a secure route before receiving anything sensitive.
Arranging a conversation
Online booking is not available. To arrange a conversation, email our team with a suitable time and a brief outline of your question. We use that correspondence to agree the arrangement with you, as described under Enquiries & forms.
Business research & professional contacts
We review public company websites, business registers, professional directories and introductions to identify organisations that may benefit from our services. Where a documented processing review supports it, our business records may include a person's name, professional role, published business contact details, employer and country, together with the source, date, relevant business signal and our qualification notes. We distinguish verified facts from estimates and do not infer private contact details.
Our proposed basis for proportionate professional-contact research is legitimate interests in developing relevant business relationships, subject to a recorded necessity and balancing assessment. Public availability alone does not establish that the processing is appropriate or that marketing contact is permitted. Unreviewed contacts are held. Any later marketing needs its own recipient, country, channel and permission checks. You can object to direct marketing at any time.
Research records are held in our controlled CRM and restricted working records, with access for authorised Institute staff and assigned consultants. Approved service providers may support storage and research under reviewed data-handling terms. Before personal information enters a new service or jurisdiction, we check the provider, access, retention and any required transfer arrangements. We do not make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects about people through automated lead scoring. A person reviews qualification and any proposed commercial contact.
When information comes from another source, our processing review must establish how this notice will reach the person within the applicable period, normally within a month and earlier if required by first contact or disclosure. A public notice alone is not a substitute for that review. We review inactive prospect research after ninety days and remove information no longer needed, while retaining a limited suppression record where necessary to respect an objection. Contact us to ask what source and information we hold about you or to object.
Why, and on what basis
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Answering your enquiry and arranging a conversation you requested | Legitimate interests — responding to someone who contacted us |
| Scoping and quoting work | Legitimate interests for company representatives. Contract applies where the individual asks us to take necessary steps towards their own contract. |
| Delivering an engagement | Contract where the individual is a party. Relevant legitimate interests, legal obligations or agreed controller/processor instructions apply to other engagement data. |
| Business records and tax | Legal obligation |
| Security of our systems | Legitimate interests |
| Counting page views with Google Analytics | Consent — and nothing is stored before you give it |
Technical records
The hosting and network providers that deliver this site may process ordinary request information — IP address, user agent, timestamps — for security and service operation under their own terms. Access and retention depend on those services and their settings.
Client data during an engagement
Documents, interviews and system detail obtained during an engagement are used for that engagement, held under the confidentiality and data-handling terms of the contract. Before using client information with an AI service, we agree the approved service, permitted data, access, retention and provider terms. We do not authorise reuse of confidential client material for another client or model training.
Cookies & analytics
The existing Google Analytics configuration remains consent-based. An optional Plausible configuration can replace it, using the site-specific script supplied by the account owner. It is disabled unless explicitly configured. The two providers are not loaded together. When enabled, Plausible receives request information for aggregate traffic measurement under its data policy. HubSpot form loading remains a separate choice.
When Google Analytics 4 is configured, it is off until you turn it on. On a first visit a bar asks whether you consent. Until you accept, your browser makes no request to Google Analytics and we do not count the visit. Declining is one press, we do not ask again, and nothing on this site is gated on the answer. If you later change your mind on this page, the choice takes effect then.
If you accept, Google sets its _ga cookies in your browser to recognise a
returning device, and we see aggregate page views, referrers, country-level location
and device class. We do not enable advertising features, remarketing or Google
Signals, we do not join this data to anything else we hold, and we do not use it to
identify a reader. Optional HubSpot forms may use cookies and technical records when loaded. Their loading
is separate from this analytics choice. We do not install HubSpot’s marketing tracking script.
Your decision is kept in your browser's local storage rather than in a cookie, so clearing this site's data puts the question back. Consent is the lawful basis, under regulation 6 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, and you can withdraw it at any time — it should be no harder to take back than it was to give.
Decorative animation preferences are stored for the current browser session. They do not identify you or measure your visit.
Who else sees it
Enquiry correspondence sits with our email provider. Information submitted through connected forms is also held in HubSpot as the enquiry system of record. Engagement material is shared only with the people working on that engagement, and with any sub-processor named in the contract before work starts. We do not sell, rent or broker any information, ever.
How long we keep it
Our retention policy is to review enquiries that do not become engagements after twelve months and remove information no longer needed, subject to legal and record-keeping requirements. Engagement material is held for the term of the contract plus the period our professional and tax record-keeping obligations require, and returned or destroyed on request in line with the contract.
Your rights
Under the UK GDPR and EU GDPR you may request access to the personal data we hold about you, its correction or erasure, a restriction on how we use it, or a copy in portable form; and you may object to processing carried out under legitimate interests. Write to us and we will respond within one month.
If you are not satisfied with our response you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, or to your local supervisory authority in the EU.
Changes
Material changes are published here with a new version number and effective date. We do not backdate.
Contact
Send privacy questions to our team, or in writing to Inference Inst Ltd, 20 Melville Hall, Holly Road, Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom, B16 9NJ, company number 16676252. If you are not satisfied with the response you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.
This page is provided for information and does not constitute legal advice. Questions to our team.