Privacy policy

1. Introduction

First Bikes Clacton ("we", "our", "us") is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your data openly. This policy explains what we collect, why, how long we keep it, and what you can do about it. We are the data controller for the information described here.

2. Information we collect

• Contact details you give us when you book, enquire, buy, reserve a bike, offer us a bike or take a test ride: your name, phone number, email address and, where needed for delivery or an invoice, your postal address.
• Vehicle details: registration, make, model, year, mileage and MOT date of a motorcycle you own, bring to us, or offer to sell us. From the registration we may look the vehicle up with the DVLA (make, colour, engine size, year, MOT and tax status) and the DVSA (MOT test history, mileage and advisories), which are public records about the vehicle, not about you.
• Booking details: the job, date and time we book your bike in for, and whether it went ahead. Confirmations, changes and reminders go to the email address you give us, with a calendar invitation attached. If we hold your bike's MOT date we may email you once, shortly before it runs out, to offer a test; reply to say no and we will stop.
• Service history: the work we carry out on your motorcycle, the invoices we issue for it, and the parts and labour on them.
• Purchase and reservation details: what you ordered from our shop, how it was sent or collected, and which bike you reserved and when. Card payments are taken by Stripe; we never see or store your full card number.
• Driving licence details for test rides: your licence number, a photograph of the front (and usually the back) of your licence, your date of birth, and your signature on the test ride agreement.
• Photographs and descriptions of a bike you offer to sell us, which may show its registration and where it is kept.
• Anything you write in the notes of a form, or in a message to us.
• Usage data: pages visited and time on page, collected only if you consent to analytics cookies.

3. How we use it, and our lawful basis

• To do what you asked: answer a booking request, carry out and invoice work, send or hand over a shop order, hold a reserved bike, value a bike you offer us, and let you test ride a bike. This is necessary to take steps at your request before a contract and to perform the contract.
• To keep a service record for your motorcycle so that we, and you, can see what has been done. This is in our legitimate interest as a workshop and in yours as the owner.
• To check you may ride a bike before a test ride, and to hold you to the agreement you sign if the bike is damaged or a penalty arrives. This is our legitimate interest in protecting our stock and complying with the law.
• To meet legal obligations: keeping business and tax records, and responding to a lawful request from the police or the DVLA about a vehicle or a ride.
• To improve the website, using analytics only with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

We do not use your information for marketing unless you have asked us to.

4. Who we share it with

We do not sell or trade your personal information. We use the following processors, each bound by a contract to handle it only on our instructions:

• Hostinger host this website, our application and our email. Every form on this site is handled on our own hosting; nothing you type is passed to an outside form service.
• Stripe take card payments for reservations and shop orders, and host the invoices we issue. Stripe receive your name, email address, the amount, and for a posted order your delivery address. Their own privacy policy covers what they do with card details. Stripe is certified to the highest card-industry security standard.
• Coded Vision Design, who build and maintain this website, receive a copy of each booking request so that one is never lost if our inbox fails, and may see personal information when fixing a fault. They use it for those purposes only.
• WhatsApp (Meta) if you choose to message us that way, or if we send you an invoice link on WhatsApp at your request.
• DVLA and DVSA receive only a vehicle registration when we look a vehicle up; nothing about you is sent to them.
• Google Analytics, but only if you accept analytics cookies.
• Royal Mail or a courier receive your name and address when we post a shop order to you.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or to establish or defend a legal claim. All of these providers store information in the UK or the European Economic Area, or under safeguards recognised by UK law.

5. Cookies

Essential cookies keep the site working and cannot be switched off. They are: the shop basket (which holds only the items you chose, not who you are), the sign-in session for our own staff, and the cookie that remembers your cookie choice. Analytics cookies help us understand how the site is used and are only set once you have agreed to them. No analytics or advertising cookie is set before you choose.

You can change your mind at any time using the cookie settings link in the footer, or clear cookies through your browser settings.

6. How long we keep it

Deletion is automatic where the table says so. You can ask us to delete anything sooner, and we will unless we have to keep it for one of the legal reasons above.

7. Security

Our application and its database run on our own hosting, protected by a password and a passkey that only our staff hold. Driving licence numbers are stored encrypted. Licence photographs, signatures, agreements and photographs of bikes offered to us are stored outside the public part of the website and can only be viewed by our signed-in staff, and every view of a licence photograph is recorded. Card details never touch our systems. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
• Have inaccurate information corrected
• Ask us to erase your information
• Restrict or object to how we process it
• Ask for your information in a portable format
• Withdraw consent where we relied on it

To exercise any of these, emailadmin@firstbikesclacton.co.uk. We answer within one month. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

9. Children

This website is not intended for children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. Test rides are only available to holders of a valid driving licence.

10. Changes

We may update this policy. Any changes will appear on this page with a revised date at the top.

11. Contact us

First Bikes Clacton
1 Sadds Yard
Skelmersdale Road
Clacton-on-Sea, CO15 6BP
Email: admin@firstbikesclacton.co.uk
Phone: 01255 427851