Privacy Notice
1. General
1.1 Char.gy Limited trading as char.gy (“we” or “us”) takes the privacy of your information very seriously. Our Privacy Notice is designed to tell you, the user of our services about our practices regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal data which may be provided to us via our websites, associated apps and other digital products we provide or collected through other means such as an online form, email, or telephone communication.
1.2 This notice applies to information provided by our users, whether they hold a char.gy account or otherwise. In this notice “you” refers to any individual whose personal data we hold or process (other than our staff).
1.3 In this notice references to the “Site” are references to any website, app or other means by which you provide personal data to us or access our services.
1.4 This notice is prepared in compliance with applicable data protection legislation including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR. For the purposes of this notice, “UK GDPR” means the GDPR as such regulation is adopted into the law of the United Kingdom pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal Act) 2018 and as amended by the Data Protection Act 2018 and any successor regulation or law.
2. Basis on which we process personal data
2.1 Personal data we hold about you will be processed either because:
2.1.1 the processing is necessary in order for us to comply with our obligations under a contract between you and us;
2.1.2 the processing is necessary in pursuit of a “legitimate interest”, a legitimate interest in this context means a valid interest we have or a third party has in processing your personal data which is not overridden by your interests in data privacy and security;
2.1.3 the processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation; or
2.1.4 in certain limited circumstances because you have consented to the processing for specific purposes.
3. Personal data we collect
3.1 We may collect and process the following personal data (information that can be uniquely identified with you) about you:
3.1.1 Certain information you provide when completing an online form to lobby your local authority such as your name and local authority (“Lobbying Information”)
3.1.2 log-in details and information you provide when setting up an account on the Site (“Login Information”);
3.1.3 profile information you provide to us relating to your account or subscription with us (“Account Information”);
3.1.4 contact information we collect from you (for example, your name, address, telephone number, email address) (“Contact Information”);
3.1.5 information we collect relating to your vehicle (“Vehicle Information”);
3.1.6 information we collect which relates to any charges you have requested or completed including the location, duration of charge and other technical information (“Charging Information”);
3.1.7 information provided to us relating to payment including credit or debit card details (“Payment Information”);
3.1.8 a record and details of any correspondence or communication between you and us or relating to any complaint submitted to us (“Communication Information”);
3.1.9 details of your visits to the Site, the resources and pages that you access and any searches you make (“Technical Information”);
3.2 We will also request certain optional data from you which we collect on behalf of certain local authorities. This data may include the following (“Optional Data”):
3.2.1 the type and model of your vehicle;
3.2.2 the reason for using your electric vehicle;
3.2.3 the type of journeys you use the vehicle for;
3.2.4 whether you are a taxi driver;
3.2.5 whether you are a car club and if so which car club;
3.2.6 information about your income;
3.2.7 your location; and
3.2.8 other information requested by the relevant authorities.
3.3 You do not have to supply any personal data to us but the Site may not be fully operable without providing data to us. In particular we will be unable to set up an account without collecting some personal data from you.
3.4 You may withdraw our authority to process your personal data (or request that we restrict our processing – see section 9) at any time but we will be entitled to complete any charges which are in progress and we may need to keep some personal data for legal or other reasons (see below).
4. Cookies
4.1 A cookie is a piece of data stored locally on your computer and contains information about your activities on the Internet. Please note the information in a cookie does not contain any personally identifiable information you submit yourself to our Site.
4.2 On our Site, we use cookies to track users' progress, allowing us to make improvements based on usage data. We also use cookies if you log in to one of our online services to enable you to remain logged in to that service. A cookie helps you get the best out of the Site and helps us to provide you with a more customised service.
4.3 Once you close your browser, our access to the cookie terminates. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. To change your browse settings you should go to your advanced preferences.
4.4 An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a number assigned to your computer by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), so you can access the Internet. We may use your IP address to diagnose problems with our server, report aggregate information, and determine the fastest route for your computer to use in connecting to our Site, and to administer and improve the Site.
Below is a list of first party cookies set by us:
| Cookie category and name | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary_chargy-session | Keeps the user authenticated after logging in | Expires after 1 year |
| Strictly necessary cookie__stripe_mid, __stripe_sid | Set by Stripe, our payment processor, when using Apple Pay / Google Pay | Expires after 1 year |
| Analytics cookie_gat, _ga, _gid | Analytics with Google Analytics | Expires after 2 years |
| Functionality cookieclient_accepts_cookies_until | Remembers if the user has acknowledged our use of cookies | Expires after 1 year |
Below is a list of third party cookies set by us:
| Cookie category and name | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary cookiestripe.com | As well as a first party cookie, Stripe, our payment processor, sets a third party cookie when using Apple Pay / Google Pay | Expires after 1 year |
5. How we process your personal data
5.1 Please see the table below, which sets out the manner in which we will process the different types of personal data we hold (information about how Optional Data is dealt with is set out in section 6):
| Purpose/Activity | Type of data | Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest |
|---|---|---|
| When we lobby your local authority on your behalf. | Lobbying Information | Consent |
| When you register with the Site or our services |
Login Information Account Information Contact Information Vehicle Information |
Performance of a contract with you Necessary for our legitimate interests (to obtain necessary information in order to provide our services) |
| When you update, cancel or amend your account details |
Login Information Account Information Contact Information Vehicle Information |
Performance of a contract with you Necessary for our legitimate interests (for the purposes of providing our services to you) |
| When we deliver charging services to you |
Login Information Account Information Contact Information Payment Information Charging Information Vehicle Information |
Performance of a contract with you Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business and to provide you with services requested) |
| When we collect payment from you (via a subscription or Pay As You Go) |
Login Information Contact Information Payment Information Charging Information |
|
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To manage our relationship with you which will include: (a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy notice (b) Asking you to leave a review or take a survey (c) When you submit a complaint |
Login Information Contact Information Charging Information Payment Information Communication Information Technical Information |
Performance of a contract with you Necessary to comply with a legal obligation Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use the services we provide) |
| To administer and protect our business, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data |
Login Information Contact Information Charging Information Technical Information |
Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation |
| To use data analytics to improve the Site, services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences |
Charging Information Technical Information Communication Information |
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy) |
6. Sharing Your Information
6.1 We do not disclose any personal data you provide to any third parties other than as explained in this section.
6.2 If you supply Optional Data to us and your local authority is a London authority then we will share the Optional Data with your local authority, Transport for London, other London local authorities and the Greater London Authority (together the “Authorities”) who agree to manage the data confidentially for the following purposes:
6.2.1 Operating and managing the charge point scheme including the monitoring of the performance of char.gy;
6.2.2 Research and policy purposes to reduce carbon emissions, improve air quality and reduce congestion e.g. carpooling opportunities, the impact of electric vehicle charging on the grid;
6.2.3 Informing the development of the charging scheme or a new scheme e.g. patterns of charge point use and where there is demand and capacity for charge Points;
6.2.4 Transferring the service to a different provider (other than char.gy);
6.2.5 Compliance and regulation duties;
6.2.6 Reporting on the charge point scheme;
6.2.7 Marketing of other government and mayoral programmes, subject to the requirements of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, as may be amended or replaced;
6.2.8 Identifying fraudulent use of the charge point scheme;
6.2.9 For your local authority to contact you in relation to any of the purposes set out above.
6.3 We will seek your consent to share this Optional Data when we collect it from you.
6.4 The Authorities may share the Optional Data under terms of confidentiality with third parties acting on their behalf for the purpose set out above. Your data will never be published unless they have been anonymised and no data is attributable to you.
6.5 We may also share data for the following purposes:
6.5.1 If we are responding to an emergency and need to pass your information to emergency responders;
6.5.2 We may host personal data with third party hosting partners;
6.5.3 Certain third party suppliers including technical support providers may have access to personal data;
6.5.4 where we carry out research to gain an insight into the use of our services, the results of this research (but not your personal data itself) may be transferred to interested third parties;
6.5.5 if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation (for example, if required to do so by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime);
6.5.6 if the administration of relevant charging points is transferred to another provider;
6.5.7 in order to enforce any terms and conditions or agreements for our services that may apply;
6.5.8 we may transfer your personal data to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets to any third party or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation, but we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected;
6.5.9 to protect our rights, property and safety, or the rights, property and safety of our users or any other third parties. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction;
We may disclose information to our group companies (as the case may be).
6.6 Other than as set out above, we shall not disclose any of your personal data unless you give us permission to do so. If we do supply your personal data to a third party we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights are protected and that third party complies with the terms of this notice.
7. Data Retention
7.1 Our current data retention policy is to delete or destroy (to the extent we are able to) the personal data we hold about you in accordance with the following:
| Category of personal data | Length of retention |
|---|---|
| Records relevant for tax purposes | 8 years from the end of the tax year to which the records relate |
| Contact Information and Communication Information following an enquiry with us | 5 years unless you subsequently entered into a contract with us |
| Personal data processed in relation to a contract between you and us | 7 years from either the end of the contract or the date you last used our services or placed an order with us, being the length of time following a breach of contract in which a contract party is entitled to make a legal claim |
| Personal data relating to vehicle charging | Upon termination of your account/membership with us, we shall promptly delete your personal details from our systems at your request |
| Personal data held on marketing or business development records | 5 years from the last date on which a data subject has interacted with us |
7.2 For any category of personal data not specifically defined in this notice, and unless otherwise specified by applicable law, the required retention period for any personal data will be deemed to be 7 years from the date of receipt by us of that data.
7.3 The retention periods stated in this notice can be prolonged or shortened as may be required (for example, in the event that legal proceedings apply to the data or if there is an on-going investigation into the data).
7.4 We review the personal data (and the categories of personal data) we are holding on a regular basis to ensure the data we are holding is still relevant to our business and is accurate. If we discover that certain data we are holding is no longer necessary or accurate, we will take reasonable steps to correct or delete this data as may be required.
7.5 If you wish to request that data we hold about you is amended or deleted, please refer to section 9 below, which explains your privacy rights.
8. Security
8.1 We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate technical and organisational measures are carried out in order to safeguard the information we collect from you and protect against unlawful access and accidental loss or damage. These measures may include (as necessary):
8.1.1 protecting our servers by both hardware and software firewalls;
8.1.2 locating our data processing storage facilities in secure locations;
8.1.3 encrypting all data stored on our server with an industry standard encryption method that encrypts the data between your computer and our server so that in the event of your network being insecure no data is passed in a format that could easily be deciphered;
8.1.4 when necessary, disposing of or deleting your data so it is done so securely;
8.1.5 regularly backing up and encrypting all data we hold.
8.2 We will ensure that our employees are aware of their privacy and data security obligations. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the employees of third parties working on our behalf are aware of their privacy and data security obligations.
8.3 This notice and our procedures for handling personal data will be reviewed as necessary.
8.4 Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to the Site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use the strict procedures and security features referred to in this section to try to prevent unauthorised access.
9. Your privacy rights
9.1 The GDPR and UK GDPR gives you the following rights in respect of personal data we hold about you:
| Category of personal data | Length of retention |
| The right to be informed | You have a right to know about our personal data protection and data processing activities, details of which are contained in this notice. |
| The right of access | You can make what is known as a Data Subject Access Request (“DSAR”) to request information about the personal data we hold about you (free of charge, save for reasonable expenses for repeat requests or complex requests). If you wish to make a DSAR please contact us as described below. |
| The right to correction | Please inform us if information we hold about you is incomplete or inaccurate in any way and we will update our records as soon as possible, but in any event within one month. We will take reasonable steps to communicate the change to any third parties to whom we have passed the same information. |
| The right to erasure (the ‘right to be forgotten’) | Please notify us if you no longer wish us to hold personal data about you (although in practice it is not possible to provide our services without holding your personal data). Unless we have reasonable grounds to refuse the erasure, on receipt of such a request we will securely delete the personal data in question within one month. The data may continue to exist in certain backup, but we will take steps to ensure that it will not be accessible. We will communicate the erasure to any third parties to whom we have passed the same information. |
| The right to restrict processing | You can request that we no longer process your personal data in certain ways, whilst not requiring us to delete the same data. |
| The right to data portability | Unless we have overriding legitimate grounds for such processing, you may object to us using your personal data if you feel your fundamental rights and freedoms are impacted. You may also object if we use your personal data for direct marketing purposes (including profiling) or for research or statistical purposes. Please notify your objection to us and we will gladly cease such processing, unless we have overriding legitimate grounds. |
| Rights with respect to automated decision-making and profiling | You have a right not to be subject to automated decision-making (including profiling) when those decisions have a legal (or similarly significant effect) on you. You are not entitled to this right when the automated processing is necessary for us to perform our obligations under a contract with you, it is permitted by law, or if you have given your explicit consent. |
| Right to withdraw consent | If we are relying on your consent as the basis on which we are processing your personal data, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Even if you have not expressly given your consent to our processing, you also have the right to object (see above). |
9.2 All DSARs and other requests or notifications in respect of your above rights must be sent to us in writing to hello@char.gy OR .
9.3 We will endeavour to comply with such requests as soon as possible but in any event we will comply within one month of receipt (unless a longer period of time to respond is reasonable by virtue of the complexity or number of your requests).
10. Data Breaches
10.1 If personal data we hold about you is subject to a breach or unauthorised disclosure or access, we will report this to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as necessary.
10.2 If a breach is likely to result in a high risk to your data rights and freedoms, we will notify you as soon as possible.
11. Other websites
11.1 Our Sites may contain links and references to other websites. Please be aware that this notice does not apply to those websites.
11.2 We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of sites that are not operated by us, even if you access them via the Site. We recommend that you check the policy of each site you visit and contact its owner or operator if you have any concerns or questions.
11.3 In addition, if you came to this Site via a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners or operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site and contact its owner or operator if you have any concerns or questions.
12. Transferring your information outside the UK or EEA
12.1 As part of the services provided to you the information you provide to us may be transferred to, processed and stored at, countries or international organisations outside of the UK or European Economic Area (“EEA”).
12.2 We will not transfer your personal data in a systematic way outside of the UK or EEA but there may be circumstances in which certain personal data is transferred outside of the UK or EEA, in particular:
12.2.1 From time to time, some of our data processors (such as third party payment processors or hosting server providers), may be based outside of the UK or EEA. In that case, we will ensure we have an agreement in place with such processors to provide adequate safeguards and a copy of such safeguards will be available on request.
If you use our Site while you are outside the UK or EEA, your information may be transferred outside the UK or EEA in order to provide you with our services;
12.2.2 We may communicate with individuals or organisations outside of the UK or EEA in delivering our services, those communications may include personal data (such as contact information) for example you may be outside of the UK or EEA when we communicate with you;
12.2.3 From time to time your information may be stored in devices which are used by our staff outside of the UK or EEA (but staff will be subject to our cyber-security policies).
12.3 If we transfer your information outside of the UK or EEA, and the third country or international organisation in question has not been deemed by the EU Commission or Secretary of State (as the case may be) to have adequate data protection laws, we will provide appropriate safeguards and we will be responsible for ensuring your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this notice. If you would like to obtain details of the safeguards we have put in place then please contact us at: hello@char.gy.
12.4 By submitting your personal data to us you agree to the transfer, storing or processing of your information outside the UK or EEA in the manner described above.
13. Notification of changes to the contents of this notice
We will post details of any changes to our notice on the Site to help ensure you are always aware of the information we collect, how we use it, and in what circumstances, if any, we share it with other parties.
14. Contact us
If at any time you would like to contact us with your views about our privacy practices, or with any enquiry or complaint relating to your personal data or how it is handled, you can do so via the following email address: hello@char.gy. If we are unable to resolve any issues you may have or you would like to make a further complaint, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office by visiting http://www.ico.org.uk/ for further assistance.
If you are in the European Union, you may address privacy-related inquiries to our EU pursuant to Article 27 GDPR:
EU-REP.Global GmbH, Attn: Char.gy
Hopfenstr. 1d, 24114 Kiel, Germany
char.gy@eu-rep.global
www.eu-rep.global
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