Leads 2 Trade Ltd

Statement of Privacy Policy

Please read this privacy policy before using the website.

In this privacy policy references to (“we” “us” and “our”) is to Leads 2 Trade Ltd. Leads 2 Trade Ltd is incorporated in England with number 063990 and its registered office address is A18 The Embankment, Riverview, Heaton Mersey, Stockport, SK4 3GN. We provide a price comparison website called comparecompanies.co.uk. References to “you” and “your” are to the individual reading and using our website. For convenience we use the words “information” and “data” interchangeably. “Website” means “comparecompanies.co.uk”.

How our business works for you

We endeavour to procure bespoke, free, no obligation quotes from potential suppliers of products and services to each of our customers, such as you, that make an enquiry via our website. This is a quote finding and supplier introduction service; we do not ourselves provide the products and services that you may require. We provide these services to consumers and businesses.

We aim to provide 1-4 quotes within 36 hours from your online completion of an enquiry working in conjunction with data controllers who specialise in the delivery of competitive supplier quotes. The number of quotes that we will try and help you to receive does vary depending on the product or service that you are looking to receive quotes for. If we do not call you before passing your details to the companies that supply the quotes we will stipulate the maximum numbers of companies that we will pass your details to when you enter your details in our product specific web form. If you have enquired about double glazing on our website one of the companies that we work closely with is Safestyle UK plc. Depending on your postcode area and requirements we may pass your details to Safestyle UK plc. We will reconfirm this when we speak to you on the phone.

To be able to deliver suitable quotations to you we send your personal data and the details of your requirements to potential suppliers.

How can you save money with us?

We offer a price comparison service. All of the companies that we deal with know that you are conducting a comparison, hence they will often offer cheaper prices, for example on labour, than they would were they approached directly by a customer, hence our service has the potential to get you big discounts.

Your consent

To provide our service we first explain in more detail how we use your personal information so that the consent you give us, which is detailed in the next paragraph, is fully and fairly informed.

You give us consent to use your personal information as outlined in this privacy statement when you manually enter information about yourself on our website and submit it as a request to receive our quote finding service. This consent allows us to use your data as described in this statement of privacy policy. If you do not provide your consent by submitting your details / clicking on submit we will be unable to provide our quote finding service to you.

You may seek further information about the scope of the consent as well as vary or withdraw your consent as outlined under the heading “What are my rights in relation to the personal data that you hold?”

What information do we collect?

We obtain personal information and business information (for business products and services) about you, only from you, and do not acquire information about you from anyone else.

Data entry

First, to provide our quote finding service we will ask you manually to supply us via the website with your personal details namely: First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Telephone Number, Street, House Number, Post Code and Company Name (for business products & services). You may also be asked on the website and by follow up telephone call for further information to help us process your request for quotations.

IP address

Second, information is obtained electronically when one computer connects with another across the Internet as when you visit our website such as such as your computer’s unique numerical Internet address (IP address). Information so obtained while necessary to the operation of and communication between computers may well also allow you as owner of the information to be identified, much like a name and address, and thus constitute personal data. The law requires such information to be identified and so far as practicable, for informed consent to be given by you, before the electronic information is passed from your computer to ours. Further explanation about the automatic electronic collection of your information is provided under the heading “Your electronic information”.

We do not use your IP address to identify you personally but these logs may contain unique identifiable information left by your computer.

We may use IP addresses to ensure that we are not receiving fraudulent registrations from the same IP address as evidence in the event of being challenged for unsolicited marketing. The IP address log would show that a registration took place on a given day.

How does our service work?

We provide our service to both consumers and businesses. The way the service works is very similar but due to the nature of the products and services and the suppliers of these, the processes are slightly different. From your perspective, you will receive the same level of service from us and your expectations in terms of receiving quotations from appropriate suppliers that you can then choose from are the same.

The processes how your data will be used are explained below.

Consumer products and services

After you submit your details we may phone you to discuss the products or services you seek from a suitable supplier, to check we’ll be able to meet your needs and, should you still wish to go ahead with us, to get you free and no-obligation quotes. This will normally be us but below explains how it works with the different products and services that we are able to help in the quoting process with.

At times we work as the appointment booking agent for the companies working on our network so even if you have requested direct contact from the company you may still receive a call from us in order to book the appointment for your quotation.

• Home Improvement Enquiries – At certain times we will use an overflow call centre to contact you. We do this when we are too busy to handle all the new enquiries coming in to us. They will call up in the name CompareCompanies. When speaking to them if you are interested in receiving quotes they will transfer your details back to us in a secure manner. We will arrange for appropriate companies to contact you to arrange free no obligation quotes. We have an agreement in place to ensure the overflow call centre is using our data in a GDPR compliant way.

  For certain home improvement enquiries where we are unable to reach you by the telephone we will send you an email to introuduce you to a potential company who can help you with the specific product that you are looking to receive quotes for. We currently work with one boiler company (WarmZilla Ltd) and one double glazing company (Safestyle UK plc).

  For certain home improvement enquiries we may not at the time you register with us have an installer who can provide quotes for that product. If that is the case we will pass your details to another quote finding company (in a secure manner) who will call you to see if they can match your details with some installers of that product. They will not use your information to do anything other than to call you about the product that you enquired about.

• Hearing Aid Enquiries – We will pass your details to one company who can provide you with a free hearing test. We may or may not call you beforehand depending whether or not the company needs more information before contacting you.
• Security System Enquiries – We will pass your details to one company who can provide you with a free alarm system quote. We may or may not call you beforehand depending whether or not the company needs more information before contacting you.
• Funeral Plans – We work with a number of funeral plan providers. They are listed within our funeral plan section of the website. We will call you to talk you through the different funeral plans offered by the different funeral plan providers. If you decide to go ahead with one of the funeral plans provided by one of the funeral plan companies that we work with we will help you through the sales process.

Business products and services

Enquiries for business products and services are handled by Search Professionals Limited. Search Professionals’ registered business address is:

The Barn, 1 West End, Whittlesford, Cambridge, CB22 4LX

If you have come to CompareCompanies looking for businesss products or services Search Professionals will transfer your business and personal details on to up to four companies. Before passing your details to up to four companies Search Professionals Ltd will check your details and match your details to a number of businesses to find the best deals. The businesses may contact you by email, telephone (including automated calls) and/or SMS. Quotations may be provided to you by appointment or electronically and you will be told over the phone how you can expect yours to be delivered.

How we get the quotes using your details

Consumer products and services

We take your details and pass them on to one or more companies that can provide the type of product or service that you are looking for and will invite those companies to submit quotes for your consideration.

We pre vet all companies that join our quote finding service as potential suppliers to our customers, such as you, to ascertain as best we can that they will be suitable for your requirements and will keep your personal data safe. However, the final responsibility for determining suitability to supply the product or service lies with you, the customer, when considering the detailed quotations and deciding if you wish to contract with a given supplier or suppliers.

Business products and services

We take your business and personal details and pass them to a specialist business solutions price comparison data controller. They will check your details and match your details to a number of businesses to find you the best deals.

They pre-vet all companies that join our quote finding service as potential suppliers to our business customers, such as you, to ascertain as best we can that they will be suitable for your requirements and will keep your personal data safe. However, the final responsibility for determining suitability to supply the product or service lies with you, the business customer, when considering the detailed quotations and deciding if you wish to contract with a chosen, given supplier.

Do you offer a guarantee or warranty for the products and services I eventually buy through your suppliers?

We are not responsible for the standard of work carried out by the suppliers that provide you with quotations as a result of your enquiry via our site. There is no warranty provided by us, implied or otherwise for the products or services provided by any suppliers that you contract with. Individual suppliers may offer their own warranties, but these and any standards of workmanship are not in any way associated with Leads 2 Trade Ltd. or its partners.

Keeping your details safe…

We take the security of your data very seriously from the outset. Our web address is HTTPS. (HyperText Transport Protocol Secure) This is the protocol used to access a secure Web server. We use https:// as the prefix to our Web address rather than the common http://, so that your session is managed by a security protocol and the transmission of data is encrypted to and from the Web server.

Secure certificates (SSL Certificates) are in place. These are small data files that digitally bind a cryptographic key to an organisation’s details. These allow secure connections from a web server to a browser. SSL is used to secure the transfer of your data to our server.

Our server is protected by a firewall. Log in details are securely shared internally between employees.

Any personal data held in our database is encrypted. If there are any security breaches, your data is encrypted and therefore secure.

Each supplier to whom we pass your information in order to provide you with quotes has contracted with us to keep your data safe and use it only for the provision of a quote and, if selected by you, to provide the product or services you require.

We always have contracts in place with the companies that we pass your details on to both to ensure that they will keep your data secure and that they comply with the rules of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) which we also operate within.
Please be assured – we will not use your details for marketing or use or pass your details to third parties other than as described in this statement without explicit consent from you.

Finally, please note that the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Lawful basis for processing your data

We rely on your explicit consent to process your personal data. This means that we ask you to consent to the following use of your data:

• to transfer the data to a data processor, where required, to enable a range of potential suppliers to be considered for quotations for you.
• to forward the information that you enter to the companies that may provide a quotation for you.

Business users only

For business users the specialist business solutions price comparison data controller will rely on legitimate interests to occasionally send emails with offers regarding products and/ or services from one or more suppliers that they consider to be of interest to you.

As a provider of business quotes their role in serving business users is to help you to find suppliers of products and/ or services that are relevant to your needs. In this capacity they may promote new suppliers that they consider may be of interest to you. They consider that this use of personal and business data is what you would reasonably expect, has minimal privacy impact and is justified from a commercial interests’ perspective.

They accept that this means they and Search Professionals Ltd take extra responsibility for considering and protecting your rights and interests.

You can object to our processing of your data in this way at any time.

You will be asked at the point of explicitly agreeing to use our service to confirm that you have read our privacy policy and agree to it before you go ahead.

To create custom and lookalike/ similar audiences

We like to work with Facebook, Google and other platforms (“Platforms”) to reach out to you with adverts for Other Products. We also like to use Platforms to reach out to other people who might like to use our quote request service.

We do this in two ways. In both cases, your data, along with other data, is used to create a custom audience and/or a lookalike/similar audience. Whenever an audience is shared with a Platform, the data is first hashed and pseudonymised, meaning that any data within the audience that could identify a person is replaced with an artificial identifier. So, the process is secure. Also, we don’t share more data than we need to for the purpose of creating the audience.

• Custom audience – A custom audience is a list of existing users of our service (“Existing Users”). From time to time, we share this with Platforms. As explained above, the data is first hashed and pseudonymised. The Platform uses this audience to show our Existing Users our adverts for Other Products.
• Lookalike/similar audience – A lookalike/similar audience is an audience created by the Platform. From time to time, we share with Platforms a list of Existing Users. The Platform uses this list to find and create lookalikes – i.e. other Platform users who have similar characteristics to the Existing Users – to which it shows our adverts. Again, as explained above, the data is first hashed and pseudonymised.

Transfers of data outside the EEA (European Economic Area)

We share your personal data within our business and with data processors who can find suitable product and service suppliers for you. Your data will then be used to enable suppliers to provide quotations and potentially move towards a contract with you.

Some of the suppliers that may offer products and services to you are based outside of the EEA.

We transfer your data as detailed above with your consent.

Data Retention Policy

We keep your personal data for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which it is being processed. This is to reduce the risk that it will become inaccurate, out of date or irrelevant.
We ensure that your personal data is securely disposed of when no longer needed.

What are my rights in relation to the personal data that you hold?

Your rights are embodied in the contract formed between us when you visit the website (as subsequently augmented when submitting your personal information and, if you are called, when speaking on the phone) and as contained in the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 – also known as GDPR.

If you have any questions or concerns please first read this section of the statement and then email our Data Protection Officer on privacy@comparecompanies.co.uk, for consumer product and service enquiries or privacy@searchprofessionals.co.uk, for business products and services. They will be pleased to assist before as well as after you may have provided personal information to us.

You may also write to our Data Protection Officers either at our registered office address stated at the outset of this statement or Search Professionals Ltd, The Barn, 1 West End, Whittlesford, Cambridge, CB22 4LX.

If you need more information about data protection you might contact the Information Commissioner: see https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/

The GDPR provides individuals with the rights in relation to personal information about themselves which is held by us as summarised in the table below.

Some of the rights are unlikely to be of practical use. For example, if you wish for a copy or correction or cessation of use of some or all of your personal data we, our suppliers and our other introducing companies are likely already to have eradicated it from our or their system given the short periods your date is retained and its limited use.

Nevertheless, the GDPR principle of transparency in particular provides you with the right to enquire and to be informed and we briefly set out all of the rights here. Further information about the rights and the circumstances in which they apply may be obtained from a number of published sources and from our fact sheets which are available on request.

How else can we help?

Rights aside, if you have a change of heart and do not wish us to pass your information to potential suppliers or another introducing company please let us know immediately by email or, should we call you, during our phone conversation and we will remove your information from our and their systems.

You are not bound to enter into a contract with any supplier that provides a quotation to you and can unsubscribe from any communications related to your enquiry from them or us at any time.

If you have any questions, please email privacy@comparecompanies.co.uk.

Your electronic information

Your electronic information means information relating to you, which may or may not be capable alone or with other information of identifying you of the kinds illustrated by what follows in this section. Your electronic information is obtained by us in by: (A) the use of cookie devices lodged within your computer (B) information disclosed by your browser and (C) features of your computer recognised and “remembered” by ours.

A) Cookies

Cookies save you from re-entering information when you return to the site. This other data is collected by cookies from your navigation around the site. A cookie is a small amount of data, which we send to your computer. The data is then stored on your browser or hard disk. Most web browsers can be set to prevent you from receiving new cookies, notify you before accepting cookies or disable cookies altogether. Details about this can normally be found in the Help facility provided with your browser. If you disable cookies, you will not be able to receive personalised facilities. If you do not want your visits to our website to be monitored in this way you can disable certain cookie functions as described below: If you wish, you can usually adjust your browser so that your computer does not accept cookies. If you do this, you will still be able to browse around the site but certain functions will not be available. Alternatively, you can adjust your browser to tell you when a website tries to put a cookie on your computer. How you adjust your browser to stop it accepting cookies or to notify you of them, will depend on the type of Internet browser programme your computer uses. If your computer uses Microsoft Windows Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, you will need to follow these instructions after clicking onto this link www.allaboutcookies.org. Go to the heading “Manage Cookies”. Click onto the option you prefer, either stopping cookies being installed, or notifying you of them. From the list provided, click onto the programme, which your computer uses. If this is not shown on the list, click on the “help” heading on the bar at the top of this page, search for information on “cookies” – an explanation of how to delete cookies will appear, then follow these instructions.

B) IP Address

Your browser generates other information, including which language the site is displayed in, and your Internet Protocol address (“IP address”). An IP address is a set of numbers which is assigned to your computer during a browsing session whenever you log on to the Internet via your Internet service provider or your network (if you access the Internet from, for example, a computer at work). Your IP address is automatically logged by our servers and used to collect traffic data about visitors to our web sites. We do not use your IP address to identify you personally but these logs may contain unique identifiable information left by your computer.