This notice explains how Southmarsh Systems Ltd uses personal information about the people we contact and work with. It covers business contacts, prospective clients, clients and anyone who gets in touch with us.
Who we are
Southmarsh Systems Ltd is the controller of the personal information described here. We are a software development company based in South Lincolnshire, building bespoke business systems for small and medium-sized businesses.
- Registered name: Southmarsh Systems Ltd
- Company number: 17488299
- ICO registration number: ZC263650
- Registered office: 4 Office Village, Forder Way, Peterborough, England, PE7 8GX
- Email: privacy@southmarsh-systems.co.uk
- Website: southmarsh-systems.co.uk
We are a small business and do not have a Data Protection Officer. Questions about this notice go to the email address above.
What we collect and where it comes from
We only collect business contact information. We do not collect special category data (such as health or religion) about business contacts.
| Information | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Your name and job title | Your company’s own website (for example a team or contact page), or you, if you contact us |
| Your business email address and phone number | Your company’s own website, or you |
| Your company’s name, address, company number and what it does | Your company’s website and the public register at Companies House |
| Notes about your business relevant to our services (for example, that you take bookings by phone or run a team of engineers) | Your company’s own website |
| Records of our emails, calls and meetings with you | Our conversations with you |
| Whether you have asked us not to contact you | You |
| What you enter in our contact form: name, email, company, phone number (optional) and your message | You, through our website |
| How you use our website (pages viewed, how you arrived, your browser, device type and approximate location), only if you accept analytics cookies | Google Analytics, from your visit to our website |
We only contact limited companies and LLPs about our services without prior consent. We do not collect details of sole traders or partnerships for marketing.
How we use it and our lawful basis
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Email businesses that may benefit from bespoke software, with a small number of follow-ups | Legitimate interests: promoting our services to relevant local businesses |
| Keep a record of who we have contacted and what was said | Legitimate interests: running our business and not contacting people unnecessarily |
| Reply to your enquiries and arrange calls or meetings | Legitimate interests, or steps before entering a contract at your request |
| Deliver projects, support and invoicing for clients | Performance of a contract |
| Keep a do-not-contact record if you ask us to stop | Legal obligation and legitimate interests: making sure we respect your request |
| Keep financial records | Legal obligation |
| Measure how our website is used, so we can improve it (Google Analytics) | Consent: only if you accept analytics cookies, and you can withdraw it at any time |
We have carried out a legitimate interests assessment for our outreach, and you can ask for a copy.
Every marketing email we send says who we are and includes a simple way to opt out. We do not buy contact lists, send bulk marketing campaigns, or use automated decision-making or profiling that affects you.
Who we share it with
We do not sell or rent your information. We share it only with the service providers below, who help us run the business. Most act on our instructions under data processing terms; Anthropic handles data under its own terms, as explained in the table.
| Provider | What for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Snovio Inc. (Snov.io) | Customer relationship management and email outreach (our contact and company records) | USA (hosted on Amazon Web Services) |
| Google (Google Workspace) | Sending and receiving email | Google data centres, which may include the USA and other countries |
| Google (Google Analytics) | Website statistics, only if you accept analytics cookies | Google data centres, which may include the USA and other countries |
| Anthropic (Claude Pro) | AI assistant we use to research publicly available business information and draft outreach. Used under Anthropic’s consumer terms, with model training switched off; Anthropic keeps conversations for up to 30 days. See Anthropic’s privacy policy | USA |
| Our accountant | Financial records for clients | UK |
We may also share information if the law requires it.
Transfers outside the UK. Where a provider processes data outside the UK, we rely on recognised safeguards. Snov.io uses standard contractual clauses in its data processing terms (Snov.io data processing addendum); Google uses standard contractual clauses in its data processing terms; Anthropic processes data in the USA under its own privacy policy. You can ask us for details of the safeguards for any provider.
How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Prospective client contacts we have not worked with | 2 years from our last contact, then deleted |
| Contacts who reply but don’t become clients | 2 years from the last conversation |
| Client contacts and project records | 6 years after the end of our last contract (for legal and tax reasons) |
| Do-not-contact records | For as long as we market our services, keeping only your company name, email or website domain, and the date you asked, so we never contact you again |
| Contact form enquiries that don’t lead to work | 2 years from the last conversation |
| Google Analytics data about your visits | 14 months, then deleted automatically by Google Analytics |
We review our records at least once a year and delete what we no longer need.
Cookies
We use Google Analytics to see how people use our website, so we can improve it. It uses cookies, and we only set them if you accept them in the cookie banner. If you reject them, or don’t choose, Google Analytics is not loaded at all.
| Cookie | What for | How long |
|---|---|---|
_ga | Google Analytics: tells visits from the same browser apart | 2 years |
_ga_2C4ZHJNKM1 | Google Analytics: keeps track of your current visit | 2 years |
We also save your cookie choice in your browser (not as a cookie), so we don’t ask you on every page. This is needed for the site to remember your choice.
You can change your mind at any time with the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of every page. If you withdraw consent, we remove the Google Analytics cookies from your browser. Google Analytics does not store your IP address, and we do not use it for advertising or share its data with other Google services for advertising.
Your rights
You can stop our marketing emails at any time. Reply “no thanks” or “unsubscribe”, or email us, and we will stop and add you to our do-not-contact list. Your right to object to direct marketing is absolute; we will not ask you to give a reason.
Under UK data protection law you also have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the information we hold about you
- ask us to correct information that is wrong
- ask us to delete your information
- object to or ask us to restrict how we use it
- ask us to transfer information you gave us to another organisation
Email us to use any of these rights. We will respond within one month and there is no charge.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this notice
We will update this notice if the way we use information changes. Last updated: 8 October 2026.