Privacy policy

1. Who we are

beaverCAD is part of The Beaver Group. Both are trading names of a sole trader based in the UK. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean beaverCAD.

For most of the information in this policy we are the “controller”, which means we decide how and why it is used. The exception is explained in section 4: property addresses and sketches that our clients send us.

You can contact us about anything in this policy at hello@thebeavergroup.co.uk.

2. Whose information we hold

• People who visit our website or get in touch with us.
• Our clients: the businesses that use The Dam, and the people at those businesses who use it.
• Owners and occupiers of properties, where our clients send us a property’s address and sketches (see section 4).

Our services are for businesses only.

3. What we collect and why

When you contact us

If you email us, phone us or use our contact form, we receive your name, email address, phone number if you give it, what your enquiry is about and your message. We use them only to reply to you and deal with your enquiry. Our legal reason is our legitimate interest in answering the people who contact us.

When your business uses The Dam

We hold:

• your business details: its name, address and logo, and any disclaimer you add to your plans;
• details of the people who use your account: their names, work email addresses, phone numbers, and each person’s role and permissions;
• login details (passwords are only ever stored in a scrambled form that we can’t read);
• your jobs: property addresses, sketches, notes, files you upload, and the drafts and plans we produce;
• messages between your team and ours;
• account and billing records: prices, credit, top-ups, statements, payments and approvals;
• security records: when people sign in, and from which device and internet address.

We use this information:

• to provide The Dam and draw your plans, because we need to in order to perform our contract with your business;
• to bill you, keep accounts and meet tax rules, because of our contract and our legal obligations;
• to send emails about your account and jobs. Some notification emails are optional and can be switched off in your settings; essential emails, such as password resets, statements and important changes, are always sent;
• to keep The Dam secure and prevent misuse, and to improve our service, in our legitimate interests.

Marketing emails

We may send occasional news and offers about our services to the work email addresses of our clients’ contacts, in our legitimate interest in keeping clients informed. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link, and you can opt out at any time by emailing hello@thebeavergroup.co.uk. Where the law requires your consent first (for example, if you’re a sole trader), we’ll ask for it.

Cookies and browser storage

Our website doesn’t use cookies or browser storage at all. The Dam uses only the cookies and browser storage it needs to work: one cookie that keeps you signed in, one that protects our forms from misuse, a “remember me” cookie if you tick that box when signing in, and small settings that remember whether the side menu is open and whether you chose light or dark mode. These are strictly necessary or your own choices, so they need no consent banner. Neither our website nor The Dam uses analytics or advertising tools.

Spam protection on our contact form

To stop spam, our contact form keeps a scrambled code made from your internet (IP) address for one hour, so that the same visitor can’t send too many messages. The code can’t be turned back into your address, and it’s deleted after the hour. Our legal reason is our legitimate interest in keeping the form free of spam.

4. Property addresses and sketches from our clients

When a client sends us the address and sketches of a property, the client decides why the plan is needed and is the controller of that information. We handle it on their behalf, and only to produce the plan they ordered: we are their “processor”.

If you own or live in a property and have questions about how its details are used, please contact the estate agent or other business that ordered the plan. We ask our clients not to send us owners’ or occupiers’ names or contact details.

5. Who we share information with

We never sell personal information. We only share it with:

• the companies that host our website, The Dam and our email, who store it for us under strict contracts (our website and The Dam are hosted by Infomaniak, in Switzerland);
• our bank, when you pay us by bank transfer;
• professional advisers, such as our accountants and lawyers, when we need their help;
• the police, courts or regulators, if the law requires it;
• a buyer, if all or part of our business is sold. They would have to protect it in the same way.

6. Where your information is stored

Our website and The Dam are stored on servers in Switzerland, which the UK recognises as protecting personal information to UK standards.

Some members of our team work from outside the UK. They access information securely through our own systems, only to do the work our clients have asked for, and we protect it to UK standards wherever it is accessed.

7. How long we keep it

• Enquiries that don’t lead to any work: up to 12 months after our last contact.
• Client accounts, jobs, files, plans, messages and billing records: 6 years after the job, or after the account closes, and then they’re deleted. This matches UK time limits for tax records and legal claims.
• Security records: up to 12 months.
• The contact form’s spam-protection code: one hour.

8. How we keep it safe

• Our website and The Dam only use encrypted (https) connections.
• Passwords are only stored in scrambled form.
• Files are kept in private storage, never at public web addresses.
• Access is limited to the people who need it for their work.
• Activity in The Dam is recorded, so misuse can be spotted.

9. Your rights

You have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the information we hold about you;
• ask us to correct it if it’s wrong;
• ask us to delete it;
• ask us to limit how we use it;
• object to how we use it, including stopping marketing emails at any time;
• ask for a copy in a format you can take elsewhere.

To use any of these rights, email hello@thebeavergroup.co.uk. It’s usually free. We may need to check your identity first, and we’ll reply within one month. Some rights have limits: for example, we must keep billing records for as long as tax rules require.

10. Complaints

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

11. Changes to this policy

If anything changes, we’ll update this page and the date at the top. If a change is significant, we’ll also tell our clients by email or in The Dam.