Crown Business Network
Privacy Policy
What personal information we collect, why we hold it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over it under UK data protection law.
1. Who we are
Crown Business Network is operated by Crown Business Network Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17367868), registered office 10 Western Road, Romford, England, RM1 3JT.
We are the data controller for the personal information described here, which means we decide what is collected and why. Our data protection contact is hello@crownbusinessnetwork.com.
2. This page, as it stands today
The full network is not open to the public yet, and this page is all there is. It has no forms, no accounts, no sign-up and no analytics. It sets no cookies, and it loads nothing from any third party — no fonts, no scripts, no embedded content.
The only personal information involved in your visit is what any website receives: our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes your IP address and the details of your request in order to serve the page and protect the site against abuse. If you email us, we hold that email and our reply so we can deal with your enquiry.
The rest of this policy describes what we will collect when the network itself goes live, so you can see it before you decide to take part.
3. What we will collect when the network launches
If you are a member of the public:
- Your name, email address and, if you give it, your telephone number.
- The content of enquiries and messages you send to a member business.
- Reviews you write, and the rating you give.
- If you create an account, your login details. Your password is stored only as a secure hash and we never see it.
- Basic technical information created by using any website: your IP address, browser type and the pages you visited, recorded in our server logs.
If you are a member business, or applying to be one:
- Business name, address, telephone number, website and contact email.
- The name and email address of the person who holds the portal login.
- Company registration details, including information we obtain from Companies House.
- Information you supply during the application and vetting process.
- Content you upload to your profile, including descriptions, photographs, logos and video links.
- Records of your membership, the places you hold, fees, enquiries you received, reviews about you, announcements sent to you, and any complaint concerning you.
We do not deliberately collect special category data — information about health, race, religion, sexual life, political opinions, trade union membership or biometrics — and we ask you not to put it in an enquiry, message or review. We do not carry out criminal records checks.
4. Why we use it, and our lawful basis
Under UK GDPR we must have a lawful basis for each use. Ours are:
- Operating the network — showing listings, passing an enquiry to the business you chose, carrying messages between you: necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or our legitimate interest in running the network you have chosen to use.
- Running a membership — onboarding, the portal login, managing places, invoicing and support: necessary for the performance of our contract with the member business.
- Vetting applicants — our legitimate interest, and that of the public, in a network whose members have been checked before being listed.
- Service messages — a notification that an enquiry is waiting, a password reset, a welcome sequence for a new member, a daily summary, and announcements to members about the network: necessary for our contract with a member, or our legitimate interest in keeping users informed about a service they are using. These are service messages, not marketing.
- Publishing and moderating reviews, and investigating complaints — our legitimate interest, and that of the public, in an honest picture of a business's work and in dealing properly with concerns.
- Security and fault diagnosis — our legitimate interest in a service that works and is not abused.
- Legal and accounting obligations — compliance with a legal obligation.
Where we rely on a legitimate interest we have considered whether it is fair to you, and you can object. Creating an account for you when you send an enquiry is the one thing we do on the basis of consent: it is optional, refusable and asked for separately.
5. Who we share it with
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for anyone else's marketing.
We share it with the member business you choose to contact, because that is the point of an enquiry. We also use suppliers who process information on our instructions and nothing else — hosting, email delivery, and Companies House for verifying a company's registration. When the network is live, a business profile can show a map, which loads from Google only if you ask for it by pressing the button; until you do, nothing is requested from Google. We will disclose information where the law requires it.
6. Where it is stored, and how long we keep it
Information is stored on servers in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area.
- Enquiries and their messages: deleted 28 days after the enquiry is created. This is automatic, so save anything you need before then.
- Public accounts: for as long as the account exists. You can delete yours at any time from your account area.
- Reviews: for as long as they are published. If you delete your account we remove your name from any review that stays up, or remove the review, as you prefer.
- Membership records, including applications we declined: for the membership and six years afterwards, so we can deal with any dispute or claim and meet our accounting obligations.
- Complaints about a business: six years from closure.
- Server logs: normally no more than 30 days.
7. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- Be told what we hold about you and get a copy of it.
- Have inaccurate information corrected.
- Have information erased where we no longer have a good reason to keep it.
- Restrict what we do with it while a question about it is resolved.
- Object to us using it where we rely on a legitimate interest.
- Receive information you gave us in a portable, machine-readable format.
- Withdraw consent at any time, where we relied on consent.
There is no charge. Email hello@crownbusinessnetwork.com and we will respond within one month.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, or on 0303 123 1113.
8. Cookies
This page sets no cookies at all. When the network is live it will use a small number that are strictly necessary: a session cookie that keeps you signed in, and a cookie that protects forms against cross-site request forgery. These are required for the service and do not need your consent.
We do not use advertising cookies and we do not use a third-party analytics service such as Google Analytics. If that ever changes we will ask for your consent first and update this policy before doing so.
9. Marketing
We do not run a marketing mailing list and we do not use a bulk email tool. Emails we send are about a membership or an account you hold, or a reply to something you sent us.
10. Changes to this policy
We may change this policy. The version published on this page is the one that applies, and the date it was last updated is shown below.
11. How to contact us
Email hello@crownbusinessnetwork.com, or write to Crown Business Network Limited, 10 Western Road, Romford, England, RM1 3JT.