How we handle your details if we have contacted you about HQAlign, and how to ask us to stop.
This notice is for you if We have contacted you, or plan to contact you, about HQAlign and you are not yet a customer. It explains what business contact details We hold about you, where We got them, why We hold them, and what you can ask Us to do about it.
If you already have an HQAlign account, Our Privacy Policy is the document that applies to you. This notice covers business development contact only.
This notice was last updated on 16th August 2026.
1.1 The data controller for the personal data described in this notice is HQAlign Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 15815964. Our registered address is 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, UK.
1.2 We are registered with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration number ZB803884.
1.3 We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer, as We are not required to do so under UK GDPR. For any privacy enquiry, please use the contact details in the “How To Contact Us” section below.
2.1 In most cases We found your details ourselves, from publicly available professional sources. That usually means one of the following:
2.2 In some cases you gave your details to Us directly - for example by filling in a form on Our website, emailing Us, or giving them to Us in conversation.
2.3 If you would like to know specifically which of these applies to you, please ask and We will tell you. Where We found your details ourselves, We record in words where they came from, at the moment We record the details themselves - so that is a specific answer about you rather than a general description of Our methods. Where you gave them to Us directly there is no source to record beyond that fact, because the source is you.
2.4 We do not buy marketing lists, and We do not collect personal details from sources that are not publicly available or given to Us directly.
3.1 We hold business contact information only. In categories, that is:
3.2 We do not hold special category data about you (such as information about health, ethnicity, religion, or political opinions), and We do not ask for it.
4.1 We hold your details so that We can contact you about HQAlign, a business software product We think may be relevant to your organisation, and so that We can keep an accurate record of Our correspondence with you.
4.2 Our lawful basis is legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR. Our legitimate interest is business development: telling relevant businesses about a product We offer. We have considered your interests and rights, and We have concluded that a small amount of business contact information, used to make a professional approach that you can stop at any time, does not override them.
4.3 This is not consent. We are not claiming that you agreed to anything, and nothing in this notice should be read as saying you did. Because Our basis is legitimate interests rather than consent, you have an absolute right to object - see section 7.
5.1 Your details are seen only by HQAlign Ltd personnel who need them for the purpose described above.
5.2 They are stored on Our systems, which are hosted by Our infrastructure providers on Our behalf. Those providers process the data only on Our instructions and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.
5.3 We do not sell your details, We do not share them with other organisations for their own marketing, and We do not trade or exchange them.
6.1 If We have not told you We hold your details, We delete them automatically within one month of first obtaining them. Our systems do this on a schedule rather than leaving it to somebody to remember: a record for which no notice has been sent is erased at that deadline. If you are reading this notice, We have told you, so this deletion does not apply to you.
6.2 Otherwise, We keep your details for as long as there is an active business conversation with you or your organisation, and then delete them automatically after a period of inactivity of approximately twelve months. If We decide We are no longer pursuing the conversation, We delete them sooner - within about a month of that decision.
6.3 That twelve-month period is measured from Our last contact with your organisation about HQAlign, which may have been with a colleague of yours rather than with you. We hold the details of the people We have spoken to at an organisation as one record of that conversation, so We do not delete half of it while the conversation is still going on.
6.4 If you ask Us to delete your details, We do so straight away - see section 7.
6.5 If your organisation becomes an HQAlign customer, Our Privacy Policy governs Our relationship with you from that point. The record described in this notice continues to be kept and deleted under section 6 - becoming a customer does not make Us keep it for longer, and the twelve-month rule above applies to a customer’s record exactly as it does to anybody else’s.
6.6 If your organisation has an account with Us and later closes it, We delete the record described in this notice at that point, rather than waiting for the period in 6.2 to run out.
7.1 You have an absolute right to object. If you tell Us not to contact you again about Our products or services, We will stop, and We do not have to weigh that against anything. You do not need to give a reason. This right comes from Article 21(2) of the UK GDPR.
7.2 You also have the right to:
7.3 Exercising any of these rights is free, and We will respond within one month.
7.4 We have not listed a right to data portability. That right applies where processing is based on consent or on a contract, and Ours is based on legitimate interests, so it does not apply here. We would rather tell you that plainly than list a right We do not owe you.
8.1 If you ask Us to stop contacting you, We delete Our record of you - your name, your job title, your contact details, where We got them, and the record of the notice We sent you.
8.2 What We do not delete is Our record of the organisation and the conversation itself - the fact that We approached that business, what was discussed, and what came of it. That record is about the organisation rather than about you, and it may mention you by name. Keeping it is how We know not to approach that organisation again in the same way, and We are not able to unpick a business record on the basis that an individual was part of the conversation. If you believe something in it is inaccurate or unfair to you personally, tell Us and We will look at it.
8.3 We keep a minimal record on a suppression list, so that We do not contact you again by mistake. Without it, nothing would stop somebody adding your details back a few months later, having deleted the only evidence that you asked Us to stop. That record holds only what is needed to recognise you if We come across you again - which may be an email address, a telephone number, a link to your professional profile, or more than one of these, and can include more than one email address if you have changed it - together with when you objected, how the objection reached Us, and who recorded it. It is used for nothing else, is never used to contact you, and is not shared with anybody.
8.4 We keep that suppression record indefinitely, and We will not delete it on request. That is not Us declining to honour a deletion request: the record exists because you objected, and deleting it would remove the only thing standing between you and being found and contacted all over again. Keeping it is how the objection is honoured, not an exception to it. It is the minimum needed to recognise you, and nothing in it is used for any other purpose.
8.5 In the unusual case where We hold nothing that could be used to recognise you again - for example if We recorded only your name - We will still delete your record and note your objection, but We should be honest that in that situation nothing would prevent your details being collected again from a public source in future.
8.6 This applies to sales and marketing contact only. If you later become a customer, or contact Us with a question, We will still be able to reply to you and to send you the service messages any account needs.
9.1 To exercise any of the rights in section 7, or to ask anything about this notice, email Us at hello@hqalign.com, use the contact form at https://hqalign.com/contact, or write to Us at HQAlign Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, UK.
9.2 Replying “no thanks” or “please remove me” to any message We have sent you is enough. You do not need to use a particular form of words, and you do not need to quote this notice.
9.3 The quickest way to stop contact is simply to reply to the message that brought you here.
If you are unhappy with how We have handled your personal data, We would prefer you to raise it with Us first so We can put it right. However, you have the right at any time to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, the supervisory authority for data protection in the UK. You can find their current contact details on their website at https://ico.org.uk.
Lodging a complaint with the ICO does not affect your other legal rights or remedies, and you do not have to complain to Us first.