Privacy policy
This policy explains what personal information Honeycomb Studio collects, why we collect it, how we look after it and what your rights are. We've written it in plain English. If anything is unclear, email us at [email protected].
1. Who we are
Honeycomb Studio is part of Honeycomb Brands. We set up websites, AI phone assistants, booking and messaging tools for UK trades and local businesses.
For the personal information described in this policy, we are the data controller. Our details are:
- Address: 66 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NA
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: +44 20 4652 1949
- ICO registration number: [ICO REGISTRATION NUMBER]
2. What we collect
Information you give us
- Enquiries and bookings: your name, business name, phone number, email address, your trade and area, and anything you tell us about your business when you fill in a form, book a call, use our website chat, text or email us.
- Calls: what you say when you ring us or our demo line, including recordings and written transcripts (see section 3).
- Clients: if you become a client, the details we need to set up and run your service, such as billing details, your opening hours, services and prices, and the logins or access you give us.
Information collected automatically
- Website use: the pages you visit, where you came from (for example a Google search or an advert), your browser and device type and an approximate location based on your IP address. Some of this uses cookies and similar technologies; see our cookie policy.
- Messages: whether texts and emails we send are delivered, opened or replied to.
We don't ask for special category information (such as health details). Please don't send it to us.
3. Calls, texts and our AI assistant
Calls to our phone numbers, including our demo line, may be answered by an AI assistant rather than a person. The assistant tells you it is an AI assistant at the start of the call. If you'd rather speak to a person, just say so and it will take a message for us to call you back.
- What happens on the call: the assistant converts your speech to text, works out a reply using an AI language model and speaks it back to you. It can take your details, answer questions about our services and book a call with us.
- Recordings and transcripts: calls may be recorded and transcribed so that we have an accurate record of what was asked and agreed, can check the assistant is working properly and can improve its answers for our business.
- Texts: if we miss your call, you may get an automatic text so we can carry on the conversation. If you book a call, you'll get a text or email confirming it and reminding you beforehand.
- No automated decisions with legal effects: the assistant does not make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects. A person at Honeycomb Studio reviews enquiries and makes any decisions.
4. How we use it and why
Data protection law says we need a lawful basis for each way we use personal information. Here's what we do and the basis we rely on.
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Reply to enquiries, answer calls and messages, and book and run discovery calls | Steps you've asked us to take before entering a contract, and our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us |
| Set up, run and support the service for our clients, and invoice them | Performance of our contract with you |
| Record and transcribe calls | Our legitimate interest in keeping accurate records and checking the quality of our service |
| Send appointment confirmations and reminders | Performance of a contract, or steps before one |
| Send marketing texts and emails | Your consent, or, for existing clients, the soft opt-in (see section 5) |
| Understand how our website is used and which adverts work | Your consent, where cookies or similar technologies are involved |
| Keep financial records and meet other legal duties | Legal obligation |
| Protect our website and systems from misuse, and deal with disputes | Our legitimate interests |
5. Marketing messages
We only send marketing texts or emails if you've agreed to receive them, or if you're an existing client and the message is about similar services (you can opt out of these at any time too). We follow the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).
To stop marketing messages, reply STOP to any text, use the unsubscribe link in any email, or email [email protected]. Stopping marketing won't stop service messages such as booking confirmations.
6. When we act for our clients
When we run an AI assistant, website, booking calendar or messaging for a client, we handle information about that client's own customers, such as callers, people who book appointments and people asked for a review. In that situation the client is the data controller and we are their data processor. We only use that information to provide the service to the client, under a written data processing agreement, and never for our own marketing.
If you called or messaged a business that uses our service and have a question about your information, please contact that business first. We'll help them respond.
Clients are responsible for telling their customers how their information is used, including that calls may be answered by an AI assistant and recorded, and for having a lawful basis for any marketing messages they send. Review requests are sent to every customer; they are never filtered by how happy the customer is.
7. Who we share it with
We don't sell personal information. We share it only with organisations that help us run our business, under contracts that require them to protect it and use it only on our instructions:
- our website, booking, messaging and customer-records platform
- phone and text message providers
- AI providers that handle speech-to-text, text-to-speech and language processing for our assistant
- payment processors, when clients pay us or their customers pay by text
- email and file storage providers
- our accountants, lawyers and other professional advisers
We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect our rights, or if our business (or part of it) is sold or reorganised, in which case the new owner would have to use it in line with this policy.
Email us if you'd like a list of our main suppliers.
8. Transfers outside the UK
Some of our providers store or process information outside the UK, including in the United States and the European Economic Area. When that happens we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as UK adequacy regulations, the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum. Contact us if you'd like more detail.
9. How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Enquiries from people who don't become clients | 2 years after our last contact |
| Call recordings and transcripts | 12 months |
| Client records and contracts | For the length of the contract, then six years for legal and tax purposes |
| Marketing preferences | Until you opt out; we then keep a note that you opted out so we don't contact you again |
Information we process for clients is kept for as long as the client instructs us, then deleted or returned when the service ends.
10. Keeping it safe
We use reputable providers with strong security, limit access to people who need it, protect our accounts with strong sign-in security and keep our systems up to date. No system is completely secure, so if something does go wrong we'll act quickly and tell you and the ICO where the law requires.
11. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
- ask us to correct information that's wrong or incomplete
- ask us to delete your information
- ask us to limit how we use it, or object to us using it, including for marketing
- ask us to send it to you or another organisation in a common format
- withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent
To use any of these rights, email [email protected]. We'll reply within one month. There's normally no charge.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.
Our services are for businesses and are not aimed at children under 18.
12. Changes and contact
We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed, and we'll let clients know about significant changes.
Questions? Email [email protected] or write to us at 66 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NA.