Legal
Privacy notice
Last updated 2 October 2026
In short
- We collect what you give us when you enquire, book, chat, sign up or work with us, and use it to answer you and deliver your project.
- Your data is stored and processed in Microsoft data centres in the UK and encrypted at rest. We never sell it.
- We use AI to answer website questions, summarise requests and draft replies. A person always decides what happens next.
- You can ask to see, correct, export or delete your data at any time by emailing privacy@nikodev.co.uk.
Who we are
Niko Developments Ltd is the controller of your personal data. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 17450168, and our registered office is 25 Pateley Square, Wigan, WN6 7HG, United Kingdom.
For anything about your data, email privacy@nikodev.co.uk or write to us at the address above.
What we collect and why
We only collect what we need for each of the things below. We do not buy data about you from anyone else.
| When | What | Why | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiries, estimates and audit requests | Name, email, company, your message, the options you choose in the estimator, and (only if you accept optional storage) which campaign brought you here. | To reply, prepare an estimate or proposal, and set up your project. | Steps you ask us to take before a contract; legitimate interests in answering enquiries. |
| The website AI assistant | The messages you type. If you send a brief or ask for a person, also your name, email, company and the conversation. | To answer questions about us and turn your idea into a project brief with an estimate. | Legitimate interests in helping visitors; steps before a contract when you send us a brief. |
| Booking a call | Name, email, company, what you want to discuss, and the time you choose. | To hold the slot, send the calendar invite, joining link and reminders, and prepare for the call. | Steps you ask us to take before a contract; performance of a contract for existing clients. |
| Your project portal | Messages, files you share, milestone approvals, proposal decisions (including the name you type to accept, the time, your IP address and browser), invoices and payment notices. | To deliver the project, keep a record of what was agreed, and bill for the work. | Performance of a contract; legal obligations for accounting records; legitimate interests in keeping evidence of agreements. |
| Newsletter | Email address, when you signed up and confirmed, and how you found us. | To send our engineering notes. | Your consent, which you can withdraw with the unsubscribe link in every issue. |
| Emails to our team | Whatever you include in emails to addresses such as support@nikodev.co.uk. | To answer you. | Legitimate interests; performance of a contract for clients. |
| Keeping the service secure | IP address, browser details and request times, briefly, in security checks and server logs. | To stop abuse such as spam and brute-force attempts, and to fix faults. | Legitimate interests in running a secure service. |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed them against your rights, and you can object at any time.
How we use AI
We use Azure OpenAI, provided by Microsoft, running in its UK South region. We use it to:
- answer questions in the website assistant and turn ideas into project briefs;
- summarise new requests, flag risks and suggest questions for our team;
- draft replies, updates and proposals, which a person always reviews before anything is sent; and
- prepare briefing notes before booked calls and help our team search their own records.
We send the AI only what each task needs. When it summarises your request, it sees your name, company and message, not your email address. Prices always come from our published rate card, not from the AI.
Microsoft does not use this data to train its models. It may keep requests for up to 30 days to detect abuse, in the same region, and its automated filters may block harmful content.
AI suggestions help us prioritise and prepare. No decision with legal or similarly significant effects on you is made by automated means alone. A person always reviews requests, proposals and replies.
International transfers
Most of your data never leaves the UK. Where a provider above processes it elsewhere, we rely on UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum, so it stays protected to UK standards.
How long we keep it
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that do not lead to work | 24 months after we were last in touch |
| Project records: proposals, acceptances, invoices, portal messages and timelines | 6 years after the project ends, as UK accounting and limitation rules require |
| Files shared in a project portal | 12 months after the project ends, unless you ask us to keep them longer or delete them sooner |
| Website assistant chats you do not send to us | Not stored by us. They stay in your browser tab until you close it or start a new chat |
| Newsletter | Until you unsubscribe. Sign-ups never confirmed are deleted after 30 days. After you unsubscribe we keep your address marked as unsubscribed so we never email you again; ask and we will erase it completely |
| Encrypted backups | 35 days, then deleted automatically |
| Server and security logs | Up to 30 days |
How we protect it
We encrypt everything in transit and at rest, and personal details are additionally encrypted field by field. Shared files and backups are encrypted with our own keys before they are stored.
Our team signs in with passkeys or two-factor authentication. Changes in our admin system are logged, and access is limited to people who need it.
Your project portal is reached through a private link. Keep it to yourself; if it is ever shared by mistake, tell us and we will replace it straight away.
Cookies and browser storage
We do not use advertising or third-party tracking cookies. We keep a few small items in your browser:
| Item | Purpose | How long |
|---|---|---|
| niko.consent and niko_consent | Remembers your choice about optional storage | 180 days |
| niko.contact | Remembers your name and email while you browse, so you do not have to type them twice | Until you close the tab |
| Estimator progress | Keeps your answers if you reload the page | Until you close the tab |
| niko.assistant | Keeps your website assistant conversation | Until you close the tab or start a new chat |
| niko.utm (optional) | Which campaign brought you here, sent with an enquiry only if you accepted optional storage | Until you close the tab |
Everything except the campaign item is needed for the site to work as you would expect. The campaign item is only stored if you accept optional storage.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:
- give you a copy of your data;
- correct it;
- delete it;
- restrict how we use it;
- send it to you or another organisation in a portable format; and
- stop using it where we rely on legitimate interests.
Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
Email privacy@nikodev.co.uk. We reply within one month and do not charge. We may ask you to confirm your identity first.
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, please tell us first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Children
Our services are for businesses and are not aimed at anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect children's data.
Changes to this notice
When we change how we use data, we update this page and the date at the top. If a change affects you significantly, we will tell you directly.