Effective Date: 1st March 2026
Privacy at a Glance
This section provides a high-level summary of our privacy practices. For full details, please read the comprehensive sections below.
- Who we are: Alertacall Limited, a specialist in housing technology and age technology services.
- Our Role: We are legally responsible for the data of our direct customers. For residents using our service through a Housing Provider, we only handle data on their behalf.
- Data We Collect: Contact details, service usage, benefit status, and limited health/mobility info to help you feel safe and connected.
- Surveillance & Automation: We use interaction data to help keep you safe (always with human oversight). We do not use our devices for continuous surveillance.
- Marketing: We use professional contact details for business relationships. We may send helpful information to residents by post, but we only use email or text marketing with your permission.
- Retention: We keep resident and direct customer data for 6 years after a service ends. Business contacts are kept until you ask us to remove them.
- Cookies: We use essential and performance cookies on our websites to ensure they work correctly.
- Your Rights: You have the right to access, fix, delete, or pause our use of your data at any time.
- Who to contact: Residents (and their contacts) should contact their Housing Provider first. Direct customers (and their contacts), business contacts, and employees should contact us at privacy@alertacall.com.
Important Information and Our Role
Alertacall Limited (Registered Office: 45 Crescent Road, Windermere, Cumbria, LA23 1BL) operates in two distinct capacities under UK data protection law:
- When we are legally responsible for your data: We decide how and why your information is used. This applies if you are a direct customer, an employee, a business contact, a nominated contact, or a healthcare visitor.
- When we handle data on behalf of others: When we provide services through a Housing Provider. In these cases, the Housing Provider is legally responsible for your data, and we only use it exactly as they instruct us to under our contract.
The Data We Collect
We collect and process the following categories of personal data:
- Identity & Contact: Name, address, postcode, date of birth, email address, and phone numbers.
- Benefit Status: Whether you receive Housing Benefit or Universal Credit, to help us determine your eligibility for specific service options.
- Nominated Contacts & Visitors: Names and contact details for your nominated contacts or healthcare visitors. A nominated contact is someone whom we may contact in the event we are unable to get in contact with you. We collect this from you or your Housing Provider so we know who to speak with if we cannot reach you.
- Professional Data: Work contact details and job titles for staff at client organisations.
- Usage & Interaction: Information on how you interact with our devices and services.
- Audio Records: Phone records and recordings of calls made for quality and safety purposes.
- Special Category Data: We may record basic health or mobility details (e.g., “uses a wheelchair”) to enable us to provide a tailored service. We do not hold medical records.
- Technical Device Data: When you connect to our services via one of our touchscreen devices or a work device, we automatically collect your IP address and approximate location. This is necessary to ensure the device is functioning correctly and to maintain a secure connection.
Automated Decision-Making & Surveillance
- Automated Decisions: We use your interaction data to flag if we need to check on you or alert your nominated contacts through our OKEachDay® service. A real person always reviews these alerts first, meaning no safety decisions are ever fully automated. We also use this data to learn the best time to contact you.
- No Surveillance: Our technology relies on your interactions; we do not use our services for surveillance or continuous monitoring of your private life. We will never use the camera on your touchscreen unless you have actively enabled it on a call.
Who We Share Your Data With
We will never sell your data. To provide our services safely, we only share information with:
- Your Housing Provider / Landlord: Service usage and interaction data to help ensure you stay safe, connected and informed (they are legally responsible for your data).
- Emergency Services & Nominated Contacts: If we have concerns about your safety whilst in contact with you, or if we believe there is a risk to your vital interests.
- Trusted Service Providers: Secure cloud hosts, IT support, and communication platforms that help run our systems under strict data processing agreements.
- Legal & Regulatory Authorities: Only when strictly required by law, court order, or regulatory request.
Purposes and Lawful Basis for Processing
We only use your data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we rely on:
- Contractual Necessity: To deliver the services You or your Housing Provider has signed up for.
- Consent: Where you have given us clear permission to use your data for a specific purpose, such as sending you digital marketing by email or text.
- Vital Interests: To protect your life or safety in emergency situations.
- Legitimate Interests: For service improvement, business-to-business outreach, and sending helpful information by post to people who could benefit from our technology.
- Substantial Public Interest: We may process basic health-related data to provide support to individuals with disabilities or those at risk. We do this under the ‘safeguarding individuals at risk’ privacy rule.
Marketing
For our business contacts, we use professional channels – such as LinkedIn or business email – and provide a clear opt-out in every communication.
For residents and individual members of the public, we may send helpful information about our services through the post. We will only contact you by email or text if you have given us your permission. You can opt out of any of our marketing at any time by following the instructions in the message we sent you.
Cookies
We use cookies on our website and other digital platforms we operate. These are small text files placed on your device to help the site provide a better user experience. We use:
- Essential Cookies: Required for the operation of our website and services.
- Analytical/Performance Cookies: To help us recognise and count the number of visitors and see how they move around our site.
You will be asked if you wish to allow Analytical/Performance cookies when visiting our websites. You may also block essential cookies via the settings in your browser, however, if you do this, the site may not function properly.
International Data Transfers
Your data is primarily hosted and processed within the United Kingdom. Some sub-processing may occur within the European Union (EU). We ensure these transfers are protected by UK adequacy regulations or standard contractual clauses to maintain a level of protection equivalent to the UK.
Data Security and Retention
We implement robust encryption and access controls to keep your data secure. Our retention periods are as follows:
- Housing Provider Residents: We hold your data for 6 years after our contract with your Housing Provider ends. This allows them to conduct any necessary future investigations or audits.
- Direct Customers, Employees, Nominated Contacts & Visitors: We remove data 6 years after the service or employment relationship ends, or earlier if requested and legally permissible.
- Business Contacts: We retain professional contact details indefinitely to manage our ongoing business relationship, or until you ask us to remove them
Your Legal Rights
You have the right to ask us to:
- Right of Access (and Portability): Show you the personal information we hold about you, or transfer it to another provider.
- Right to Rectification: Fix any mistakes or update your information.
- Right to Erasure: Delete your information if we no longer have a legal reason to keep it.
- Right to Object or Restrict: Stop or pause us from using your data.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Change your mind and withdraw any permission you previously gave us.
If you use our service through a Housing Provider, you must contact them directly to make these requests, as they are legally in charge of your data.
Contact and Complaints
For any privacy queries or complaints, if you access our services via a Housing Provider – or if you are a nominated contact or healthcare visitor for a resident – you should contact the Housing Provider first.
If you are a direct customer of Alertacall – or their nominated contact or healthcare visitor – a business contact, or an employee of Alertacall, please contact our privacy team first at privacy@alertacall.com.
Under UK law, if we are directly responsible for your data, you must allow us the chance to fix your complaint before you escalate it. We aim to acknowledge and resolve all issues within 30 days.
If you remain dissatisfied with our final response, you can then complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):
Website: ico.org.uk
Phone: 0303 123 1113
