Data Protection Complaints

Last updated: 6 June 2026

Summary

If you are unhappy with how Pherox has handled your personal data, please tell us. We would like the chance to put it right.

You can complain to us in two ways:

  1. Email to team@pherox.co.uk with "Data protection complaint" in the subject line (preferred)
  2. Post to: Data Protection Lead, Pherox Technologies Ltd, 195 Manchester Road, London E14 3DR

We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days and give you a substantive response within 30 days of receiving it.

You do not have to come to us first. You can complain directly to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or 0303 123 1113. We would prefer the chance to put things right, but the choice is yours.

This procedure is required under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

Submit a complaint

1. What this procedure is for

This procedure handles complaints about how Pherox Technologies Ltd has handled personal data. That includes:

  • How we have used your personal data
  • A response to a data subject rights request that you think was inadequate
  • A privacy notice you think is unclear or wrong
  • A concern about how we use cookies
  • A data breach affecting you that you think we did not handle properly
  • Any other concern about our compliance with UK data protection law

It does not cover:

  • Billing or refund disputes (those go through sections 4 and 16 of the Terms of Service)
  • Accessibility issues (those go through our Accessibility Statement at pherox.co.uk/accessibility)
  • Security vulnerabilities (those go through our Responsible Disclosure policy at pherox.co.uk/security)
  • General service complaints (email team@pherox.co.uk; we will route appropriately)

Where a complaint touches multiple areas, send it once and we will route internally.

2. Who can complain

Anyone whose personal data we hold or whose data protection rights we may have affected can complain. That includes:

  • Pherox account holders (trades users)
  • People on our notify-me list, contact form submissions, or other website data captures
  • People who have asked us a question about their data
  • The customers of our trades users (typically homeowners): you can complain to us directly, but please read section 3 below first

You do not have to be a Pherox customer to complain.

3. A note for homeowners

If you are a homeowner whose data has been entered into Pherox by a tradesperson:

Under UK data protection law, the tradesperson is the controller of your data, and we (Pherox) are their processor. That means we handle your data only on the tradesperson's instructions, and decisions about your data are usually theirs to make.

In practice this means:

  • For most concerns (data accuracy, deletion of your records, what your tradesperson is doing with your information), the right first contact is the tradesperson, not us.
  • For concerns about how Pherox itself has handled your data as a processor (for example, a security breach affecting our systems, our retention of your data after your tradesperson asked us to delete it, or our use of sub-processors), come to us.

If you come to us first about something we are not the controller of, we will:

  • Acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days
  • Explain who the controller is and how to reach them
  • Pass on, where appropriate, the issue you raised to the tradesperson so they can address it
  • Tell you what (if anything) we can do as the processor

Our Data Processing Agreement (Schedule A to the Terms) explains this relationship in detail.

4. How to complain

Email (preferred)

Email team@pherox.co.uk with "Data protection complaint" in the subject line. Include:

  • Your name and contact details
  • A description of your complaint
  • The date the issue happened (or when you noticed it)
  • (Optional) any reference number from previous communication with us
  • (Optional) any evidence you want to attach

We will reply with a complaint reference number when we acknowledge.

Post

Write to:

Data Protection Lead
Pherox Technologies Ltd
195 Manchester Road
London E14 3DR

Include your name, contact details, the issue, and the date. We will acknowledge by email if you give us an email address, by post if you do not.

5. What we do when we receive your complaint

When your complaint reaches us:

Step 1: Acknowledge (within 5 business days)

Our Data Protection Lead acknowledges your complaint, confirms what we have understood it to be, and gives you a complaint reference number. If we need any clarification before we can investigate, we ask for it at this point.

Step 2: Investigate

We look into what happened. Depending on the complaint, this might involve:

  • Reviewing relevant logs and records
  • Talking to anyone on our team involved
  • Talking to relevant sub-processors
  • Reviewing the relevant policies and procedures
  • Reviewing the law and ICO guidance

We may come back to you during the investigation with follow-up questions. If we do, the clock pauses on the 30-day response window for the time you take to respond.

Step 3: Substantive response (within 30 days)

We give you a written response, normally by email, that explains:

  • What we have understood your complaint to be
  • What we found when we investigated
  • Whether we agree with your complaint, partially agree, or disagree
  • What we propose to do about it
  • Your options if you are not satisfied with our response

If we genuinely cannot complete the investigation within 30 days because of complexity, we will tell you before the 30 days are up, explain why, and give you a revised timeline. This is the exception, not the norm.

6. What we might ask you for

To investigate properly, we may need to ask you for:

  • Verification of your identity (so we do not disclose personal data to the wrong person; we ask only what is reasonable, and we use the minimum information needed)
  • Details of the specific incident or interaction (dates, who you spoke to, what was said)
  • Copies of any correspondence you have
  • Permission to contact a relevant third party (for example a Pherox sub-processor) on your behalf

We will only ask for what we genuinely need to investigate your complaint.

7. Outcomes and remedies

If we uphold your complaint (fully or in part), depending on the situation we may:

  • Correct or delete personal data
  • Stop or change a processing activity
  • Recover or further restrict data shared in error
  • Tell affected sub-processors
  • Apologise
  • Update relevant policies
  • Provide training or process improvement on our side
  • In rare cases, offer goodwill compensation

We will tell you which of these we have done, or are planning to do.

If we do not uphold your complaint, we will explain why and tell you what your further options are (section 8).

8. If you are not satisfied

You have several routes if you are unhappy with our response.

Ask us to look again. Reply to our response telling us why you remain dissatisfied and what you would like us to reconsider. A complaint will be reviewed by someone other than the original investigator where reasonably possible.

Complain to the ICO. The Information Commissioner's Office regulates data protection in the UK. You can complain to them directly at any point, even if you have not come to us first:

  • Website: ico.org.uk
  • Phone: 0303 123 1113
  • Live chat: available from the ICO website
  • Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

The ICO will look at your complaint independently. The ICO does not normally award compensation but can take action against organisations that break the law.

Seek independent legal advice or go to court. UK data protection law gives you the right to seek a judicial remedy and compensation through the courts. We recommend independent legal advice before taking this route.

You can pursue any combination of these. Complaining to the ICO does not prevent you from taking court action; the reverse is also true.

9. Our internal complaint register

We keep an internal register of every data protection complaint we receive. The register records:

  • The complaint reference number
  • The date received and the date closed
  • A summary of the complaint
  • A summary of the outcome
  • Any actions we took as a result
  • Whether the complaint was escalated to the ICO

We review the register quarterly to look for patterns: types of complaint that recur, parts of the product that generate disproportionate complaints, sub-processors that come up repeatedly. Where patterns emerge, we treat them as input to our roadmap and our policies.

We do not share the register publicly. We may publish anonymised summary statistics in transparency reports later in the product's life.

10. Confidentiality

We treat complaints confidentially. The people who investigate a complaint are limited to those who need to know to do the investigation, plus our legal advisers and (where appropriate) the ICO.

If your complaint involves a sub-processor, we may need to share relevant details with them. We will tell you if we plan to do this.

We do not share complaints or related information with third parties for marketing or any unrelated purpose.

11. No reprisal

We will not penalise you, or change our service to you, because you have complained. If you are a Pherox account holder and you complain, we treat your service the same as any other user.

If you believe you have suffered a reprisal because you complained, that itself is a complaint and you can raise it through this same procedure.

12. Changes to this procedure

We may update this procedure from time to time. Material changes (for example a change to timescales, or to how complaints are escalated) take effect 30 days after we notify users, under section 17 of the Terms.

Non-material changes (typos, clarifications, contact-detail updates) take effect immediately.

13. How to contact us

Submit a complaint:

  • Email: team@pherox.co.uk with "Data protection complaint" in the subject line
  • Post: Data Protection Lead, Pherox Technologies Ltd, 195 Manchester Road, London E14 3DR

General data protection queries (not a complaint): team@pherox.co.uk

ICO: ico.org.uk or 0303 123 1113