Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains how Hark Tech ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses and protects your personal information when you contact us through this website or engage our repair and 3D printing services. We comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who we are

Hark Tech is a sole trader business operated by Grant Harkness, based in Basingstoke, Hampshire, United Kingdom. We are the data controller for any personal information you provide to us.

Contact: repairs@harktech.co.uk

2. What information we collect

When you contact us through the website contact form or directly by email, we collect:

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your phone number (if you choose to provide it)
• A description of the item or work you're enquiring about
• Any files or photos you upload (such as STL files or images of faulty equipment)
• The IP address and browser user-agent of the request (captured automatically by our server for security and abuse-prevention purposes)

When you subsequently engage our services, we additionally collect and hold:

• Your postal address (so we can return your item)
• Any quotes, invoices and payment records relating to the work
• Notes about the work we carried out on your behalf

We do not use tracking cookies, analytics cookies, or third-party advertising scripts on this website.

3. How we use your information

We use your personal information for the following purposes only:

• To respond to your enquiry and provide you with a quote
• To carry out the repair or 3D printing work you have engaged us for
• To return your item to you safely
• To issue invoices and keep proper accounting records
• To comply with our legal and tax obligations as a UK sole trader
• To communicate with you about the progress of your job

We will never sell your data, share it with third-party marketers, or send you unsolicited marketing messages.

4. Legal basis for processing

We process your personal data under the following UK GDPR lawful bases:

• Contract: where processing is necessary to provide the services you have requested
• Legal obligation: where we are required to retain records for tax, accounting or consumer protection purposes
• Legitimate interests: for limited technical logging to protect our website and customers from abuse

5. Who we share your information with

We share your information only where strictly necessary:

• Couriers (e.g. Royal Mail, DPD) — to dispatch your item back to you. They receive your name and postal address only.
• Parts suppliers — only where ordering a specific replacement part requires a delivery address, and only with your prior agreement.
• HMRC and our accountant — to meet our statutory tax reporting obligations.
• Our bank and payment provider — when processing invoices and payments.

6. Where your data is stored

All customer and enquiry data is stored on a server located in the United Kingdom, on systems we control directly. We do not use cloud CRM providers. Backups are encrypted and held on-site.

7. How long we keep your data

We retain customer and job records for as long as they are needed to provide our services and for the statutory periods required by UK tax and accounting law — generally six years from the end of the tax year in which the transaction took place. After that period, records are securely deleted.

Contact form submissions that do not lead to a job are retained for up to 12 months and then deleted.

8. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you (a "subject access request")
• Ask us to correct inaccurate data
• Ask us to delete your data, subject to our legal retention obligations
• Object to or restrict our processing of your data
• Ask for your data to be transferred to another provider (data portability)
• Lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk

To exercise any of these rights, please email repairs@harktech.co.uk. We will respond within one calendar month.

9. Data on your devices

If you send us a device for repair, please be aware that the work may involve powering it on and, in some cases, accessing the operating system in order to test the repair. We do not intentionally access, read or copy your personal files. If you have specific concerns about data privacy on a device, please tell us when you contact us — we can usually perform repairs without booting the operating system at all.

We strongly recommend you back up any important data before sending a device to us. We cannot be held responsible for loss of data that occurred before or during the course of diagnosing a hardware fault.

10. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including encrypted transport (HTTPS), access controls on our admin systems, locked physical storage for customer devices, and regular security updates to our server software.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal obligations. The "last updated" date at the top of this page will always show the most recent version. Significant changes will be communicated via the website.

12. Contact

For any questions about this privacy policy or how we handle your data, please contact us at repairs@harktech.co.uk.