Privacy Information
Paul Smith Computer Services do not sell or publish any information about their customers unless given express permission to do so (for instance in our 'Customer Comments' section or our reseller listings).
Spam
We never send 'spam' to our customers. We will, on occasion, send out email notifications about our software - for instance if a vulnerability has been found and a security update is available, but you can opt out these notifications by contacting webmaster@pscs.co.uk. Note that in the past 4 or 5 years, only 3 such emails have been sent.
Cookies
Some sections of our website do use cookies, but they are necessary for the operation of the site. No 'tracking' cookies are used anywhere on our site.
The areas of our website where cookies are used are:
- The support system - on this area, the cookies are used to keep track of your account details. If you "logout" of the system, your cookie should be deleted by your web browser. If, when you log in to the forums you do not choose 'Remember me on each visit', the cookie will be deleted automatically when you close your web browser.
- The online order system - on this area, the cookies are used to remember what is contained in your 'shopping basket'. The cookie will be deleted automatically when the web browser is closed.
- The main website 'My account' section. This area uses cookies to remember which PSCS customer account you hold. If you are not an existing PSCS customer, then this cookie will never be created. When you log out of the main website (http://www.pscs.co.uk) the cookie will be deleted by your web browser. If you do not choose 'Remember Me' when you log into the main website, the cookie will be deleted automatically when you close your web browser.
If you do not want to use cookies, then you can avoid using them by not logging in to the main website, not using the online support system, and not using the online order system. Orders can be placed by telephone instead - however these will often take longer than using the online systems.
If there are any questions or concerns about the use of cookies on our website, please contact webmaster@pscs.co.uk.
Personal Data
We hold personal data about the following groups of people, for the listed reasons:
Customers
People who have purchased items or services from us.
Data held
- Name
- Email address
- Invoice address
- Contact telephone number
- Securely hashed password
Purpose
- For sending licence keys etc
- For sending invoice
- For contacting the customer if there is a problem with the order, payment, etc
- For contacting the customer about subscription renewals, etc
- For providing a 'portal' on our website so that customers can access licence keys, invoices etc
GDPR Lawful Bases: Contractual, Legitimate Interests
Some of this data is shared with Kashflow who are our online accounting software provider. Kashflow will not contact you directly but their system will email invoices etc on our behalf.
Technical support users
People who have requested technical support from us.
Data held
- Email address
- Name (possibly)
- Other information volunteered by user
Purpose
- For providing the requested technical support
This data is shared with LiveAgent who provide our online helpdesk solution. LiveAgent will not contact you directly, but their system will email our replies and automated responses on our behalf.
LiveAgent may store further information which we do not have access to - for instance passwords for user-access to our Helpdesk ticketing system
GDPR Lawful Bases: Legitimate Interests
Newsletter users
People who have explicitly signed up to our newsletter, for VPOP3 release news, status updates and helpful tips. Users can unsubscribe from this at any point, either by clicking on the Unsubscribe link in the emails they receive or by contacting support@pscs.co.uk
Data held
- Email address
- Name (possibly)
Purpose
- For sending our newsletter consisting of selected updates from our Blog
This data is shared with MailChimp who are our mailing list provider. MailChimp's systems email the newsletter on our behalf.
GDPR Lawful Bases: Legitimate Interests, Consent
Software 'Calls Home'
Our software will periodically 'call home' to validate licence details, check whether new versions are available, or to download spam filter updates or antivirus updates (if these optional extras have been purchased).
These calls do not include any personal information. The details which are sent by the software may include some or all of the following:
- The licence details of our software
- The external IP address of your Internet connection
- The number of users currently in use (not any other details about them).
- The software version number
- A computer ID.
The computer ID does not allow us to identify you personally, it is just a unique 'hash' number created from the hardware configuration of the PC used to uniquely identify each PC (similar to the way other Windows (and other software) "activation" works). This is used to let us see whether a particular VPOP3 licence is being used on multiple PCs.
If you have any questions or concerns about the "calls home", please contact webmaster@pscs.co.uk