Privacy notice

Welcome to our Privacy notice!

This Privacy notice is published by KCOM Group Limited, a company registered in England and Wales under number 2150618 ("KCOM" or "we" or "us") and has been published so that you are aware of how and why we collect and process your personal data.  

Our details are as follows:

• Legal entity: KCOM Group Limited
• Information Commissioners Office Registration Number: Z5732459
• Data Protection Officer: Head of Risk and Compliance
• Email address: dpo@kcom.com
• Postal Address: 37 Carr Lane, Hull, East Yorkshire HU1 3RE

Any reference to you or yours means is a reference to any user of this site, of our services or any person who supplies us with information.

By using our website or taking any of our services you agree to the use of your personal information as set out in this Privacy notice.

We may collect information about you:

• Directly: This information will be gathered from a direct interaction with you by:
  • You corresponding with us by post, email, phone, through social media or through the ‘contact us’ or Livechat functionality or forms on our website, online tools or apps
  • An application for our products or services or a request for more information
  • Your creation of an account on our website, online tools or apps
  • A request for more information about the company to be sent to you
  • A request for marketing to be sent to you
  • Your completion of a survey
  • You entering into a competition or promotion
  • Door to door selling activities
• Automatically: Some personal data is collected automatically when you visit our website. This is described in more detail in the ‘Visitors to Our Website’ section of this Privacy notice
• Third parties or where the information is publicly available: This information is gathered by us from a third party or a publicly available source, including:
  • Analytics providers such as Google
  • Networking sites such as Linkedin
  • Buying in data for marketing purposes

You have a number of rights relating to your personal information, including:

• The right to request a copy of the personal information we hold
• The right to ask us to correct any inaccurate information
• The right to ask us to delete any information if we have no lawful reason to process such data
• The right to request your personal information be transferred to another person or company
• The right to object to us contacting you for marketing
• The right to limit how we use your personal information if we have no lawful reason to process such data
• The right to object to the use of your data if we have no lawful reason to process such data

More information on this can be found at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/is-my-information-being-handled-correctly/.

If you wish to exercise any of your rights relating to your data (including requesting a copy of the personal data which we hold about you) please contact us at dpo@kcom.com or by writing to us at the address given at the start of this notice.

We will only use your personal data for as long as we require it to fulfil the purpose which we have collected it for plus any additional period we are required to keep the data for due to legal, accounting and reporting obligations.

In determining how long we can retain the personal data for we will take account of:

• The amount of personal data
• The nature and sensitivity of the personal data
• The harm which would result from unauthorised use or disclosure
• Whether we can achieve our purpose without using the personal data
• Whether we are required to keep the personal data for legal, accounting or reporting obligations

If you have any further enquiries or concerns about our Privacy notice please email us at dpo@kcom.com or write to us at the address given at the start of this Privacy notice.

We will always try to resolve any enquiries or complaints or requests made in relation to your personal data to the best of our ability but you have the right to complain at any time to:

The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113
Fax: 01625 524510
Website: www.ico.org.uk

What personal information do we collect?

Where you take services from us we will collect from you the following personal information, this can be provided to us to through our customer service team, through the website or through one of our account management tools:

Residential customers

• Categories of personal data collected – Name, Address, Contact number, Email address, Payment details in order for us to process payment for the services through your chosen method, Information required for security clearance / confirmation of identity
• If you tell us you that you need support, we will record that you are a vulnerable customer - if you give us permission to do so or if we have to for legal or regulatory reasons. A vulnerable customer may:
  • require additional support (e.g. for an engineering visit)
  • be on a low income
  • have undergone a change in circumstances (such as a bereavement, divorce etc)
  We will note any Power of Attorney associated with your account.

Business customers

• Categories of personal data collected – Contact name, Email address, Address , Telephone number(s)

In addition to the above we will automatically gather the following information to enable us to deliver the services:

• Where you take internet services we will look at the amount of time you spend online, and what time you are using the services and what websites you visit in order to help us manage the network
• Where you take telephony services we will hold information about calls you have made including the number you have called and the length of the call to enable us to accurately bill you

How we use your personal data

We will allocate and store a unique identifier if you take services from us and may also gather information from you to enable us to confirm your identity when you contact us in the future to discuss your account.

We have various tools available which enable you to manage your account. Where you use one of these we will use the personal data you have provided to enable you to use the relevant online account management tool. You do not have to provide us with this information, but you will not be able to use the online tool if you fail to do so.

In the event you do not pay any amounts owing to us we may transfer the debt onto Creditstyle, a third party who will recover the monies owed on our behalf. Further information is shown below.

In addition to this, we may use the information we hold to enable us to carry out internal investigations where we suspect fraud or criminal activity.

Marketing

We may also use your personal information to keep you up to date with news about KCOM and any products and services or information which we think you may find of interest, but only where you are happy for us to do so (more information can be found here). If your preference is that we do not contact you for the purpose of direct marketing, we will continue to use the data we hold to provide you with service updates.

If we use your personal information for any other purpose, then this will be set out in the contract we have in place with you for services.

Insight

We are always looking to drive improvements to our services and customer experience. To enable us to do this, we may:

• Use your personal data to invite you to participate in surveys or other feedback activities
• Use anonymised customer data to look at patterns in order to proactively identify those improvements; and
• Use your personal data to ensure you are taking the most appropriate service from us. We will only use your personal data in this manner where you have given your consent for us to do so. For more information about consent please see the Marketing section of this Privacy notice (more information can be found here).

Third parties

In order to provide you with the services, we may share your details with our third party suppliers as detailed in our contract with you or as set out below. Where this is the case we will share only the information required to enable the provision of the services and we will not pass on your information for marketing purposes.

Residential customers

• Name of third party – Lightsource Design Limited
• Services provided by third party – Engineering services
• Personal data shared – Name, Address, Telephone number, Email address

Residential customers

• Name of third party – Cumberland Comms Limited
• Services provided by third party – Engineering services
• Personal data shared – Name, Address, Telephone number

Residential customers

• Name of third party – North Midland Construction Limited
• Services provided by third party – Engineering services
• Personal data shared – Name, Address
• Privacy notice

Residential customers outside Hull & East Yorkshire

• Name of third party – Talk Talk
• Services provided by third party – Supplier of telephony and internet services
• Personal data shared – Name, Address
• Privacy notice

Business customers outside Hull & East Yorkshire Area

• Name of third party – BT
• Services provided by third party – Supplier of services
• Personal data shared – Name, Address
• Privacy notice

Mobile services customers

• Name of third party – Abzorb Systems Limited
• Services provided by third party – Supplier of mobile services
• Personal data shared – Name, Address, Mobile Number
• Privacy notice

All customers

• Name of third party – Creditstyle
• Services provided by third party – Debt collection
• Personal data shared – Name, Date of birth, Address, Phone number, Mobile number, Email address and list of transactions for which we are owed payment
• Privacy notice

All customers

• Name of third party – Twilio/SendGRID
• Services provided by third party – Email
• Personal data shared – Name and Email address
• Privacy Notice 

All customers

• Name of third party – PrinSIX
• Services provided by third party – Email
• Personal data shared – Name and Email address
• Privacy Notice 

Residential customers

• Name of third party – Dun and Bradstreet
• Services provided by third party – Credit reference agency
• Personal data shared – Name, Date of birth, Addresses over the last three years
• Privacy notice

Residential customers

• Name of third party – Trustpilot
• Service provided by third party – Product/Service review
• Personal data shared - Name, Email address, Order number
• Privacy Notice

All customers

• Name of third party – Puzzel
• Service provided by third party – Insights for customer experience
• Personal data shared - Name, Email address, Telephone numbers
• Privacy Notice

All customers

• Name of third party – Qualtrics
• Service provided by third party – Insights for customer experience
• Personal data shared - Name, Email address, Telephone numbers
• Privacy Notice

All customers

• Name of third party – RES-Q
• Service provided by third party – Call Centre activities
• Personal data shared - Name, Address, Email, Telephone numbers, Vulnerability Indicator.
• Privacy Notice

Website visitors

• Name of third party – Outgrow
• Service provided by third party – Smart Search. Form used to recommend a suitable broadband package
• Personal data shared - Name, Email address, Postcode
• Privacy Notice

Website visitors

• Name of third party – Jotform
• Service provided by third party – Customer Contact Forms
• Personal data shared - Name, Address, Telephone numbers, Email address, Comments
• Privacy Notice

Special categories of data

There may be circumstances when we are required to gather information regarding your health to enable us to deliver service to you in the best and most efficient way (for example our engineers may need to know if you have a disability when making a home visit or our customer service team may need to know if you are registered blind to ensure your bill is provided in Braille). We will only process this data with your consent and will do so with extra care and always in accordance with this Privacy notice.

Changing or cancelling an account due to bereavement

If an account is changed or cancelled due to a bereavement, then the following personal data will be collected so that KCOM can change or cancel the account:

Account holder details: Name, Address, Telephone number and account reference

Detail of the person requesting the change: their name, their contact number, their relationship to the account holder, whether they are an authorised contact on the account, whether they are an executor of the estate, any forwarding address and any comments added.

Credit checks

For residential consumers:

Where you wish to take services from us we will conduct a credit check. Where you are a residential customer we will ask you for your name, date of birth and your addresses over the last three years and this information will be checked against our internal records. Where we are concerned about the results of this check we may carry out a further check with Dun&Bradstreet Ltd.

For business customers:

• We will cross check your company information against that which is held at Companies House and carry out a further check with an external credit reference agency (Dun&Bradstreet Ltd https://www.dnb.co.uk/utility-pages/privacy-policy.html)

Directory services

• Where you take residential telephone services from us, we will include your name, address and phone number in our ‘White Pages’ telephone directory unless you request to be ‘ex-directory’ in accordance with our Universal conditions for residential services
• Where you take telephone services on behalf of a business in the Hull and East Yorkshire area we will include the name of your business, a contact name (where requested), business address and phone number in our ‘Colour Pages’ telephone directory unless you request to be ‘Ex-directory’. Our Colour Pages website is designed and managed by Agile Spice Limited
• Where you choose to take an advert in our telephone directory we will use your details to contact you in order to clarify queries with respect to the advert and to discuss renewal of the advert.

End of Contract

In order to comply with obligations imposed by Ofcom we are required to send you a notification when you are coming to the end of your contract and an annual notification when your contract minimum term has expired. The date on which your contract will come to an end;

• The price you have paid for your contract prior to this date;
• Changes to the service and the price paid at the end of your contract period;
• Details of the notice period to terminate your contract;
• The fact that you may be able to save money by switching to another provider;
• Information about alternative tariffs (including some tariffs which we are legally required to inform you of).

Further information about these requirements can be found here.

BDUK* Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme

KCOM are a registered supplier of the BDUK voucher scheme, working alongside the UK government to bring full fibre broadband to rural towns and villages that are often missed from commercial network builds.

*Building Digital UK  is an Executive Agency of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)

If you are eligible for the scheme, meet the required criteria (https://www.kcom.com/home/dcms-application-form/) and decide to proceed, we will pass on your personal data (e.g. contact details such as email) to the BDUK for the purpose of the Voucher Scheme. BDUK will contact you about your application and to verify your service is up and running, and may also contact you to ensure that you're happy with everything. Any personal data we pass on will be used in accordance with BDUK’s privacy statement available on their website -  https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/privacy_notice/.  

Termination Fees Offer

Where you take advantage of the Contract buy-out if you are with Sky, BT, Talk Talk or PlusNet broadband: up to £100 credit on your KCOM bill offer we will request that you provide proof that you have paid your early termination fees in full within 90 days of your KCOM Lightstream Service being activated. Any such proof provided to us shall be deleted once we are satisfied that you have paid the early termination fees and shall be stored in line with our email retention policy.

If you apply for a job with us we will hold all the information you provide us with as part of the application for the purposes of progressing your application and to assess your suitability for the role for which you have applied.

Applying for a job with us

Applying for a job with KCOM is usually managed through either:

• Our online application system, or
• A recruitment agent appointed on behalf of KCOM

Online application system:

Our online application system is provided by eArcu, who will collect and process your personal data on our behalf. If you send us a speculative CV we may use the contact details you provide to contact you and where there is a position available which we believe you are suitable for we will ask you to submit your application through the eArcu system.

When applying for a position with  us using eArcu you will be asked to provide us with the following information:

• Name
• Postcode and town
• Email address
• Mobile number
• Salary expectations
• Notice requirements
• Copy of your current CV

You do not have to provide us with this information but failure to do so may affect your application.

Recruitment agents:

We may advertise positions through recruitment agents who will gather information with respect to potential employees on our behalf and will share this with us. We  have relationships with a number of recruitment agents to cover the various different disciplines which we may recruit into.

Progressing an application

Once you have submitted your application we will share your information with those people within KCOM who will be involved in the recruitment, this will be our human resources team and those employees of KCOM who are directly involved in the recruitment with whom the vacancy sits.

We will use the contact details you provide to contact you to inform you of the outcome of your application.

If you are invited to attend an interview at our offices your details will be recorded in our visitors log for security purposes and you should be aware that CCTV is in operation on our sites.

Your details will be archived on the eArcu system after 365 days of inactivity and then permanently deleted after a further 90 days . If you are employed by KCOM, information relating to your application will be retained on the eArcu system for 7 years and then permanently deleted after a further 90 days).

Making an offer of employment

If you accept an offer of employment:

• As an employee of KCOM your personal information will be loaded onto our record management system CIPHR
• We use Agenda Screening Services to carry out security checks, their privacy policy can be viewed here. We will use your name and email address to set you up on Agenda’s system and you will be sent a link to their screening system where you will be asked to input further information.  Some roles within KCOM require us to obtain enhanced security clearance, where this is the case we will inform you of this and request the additional information we require

Leaving your employment with KCOM

If you leave your employment your details will remain on CIPHR for six years.