Privacy Policy — Birch Electrical

Last updated: 28 May 2026

Who we are

This website is operated by Birch Electrical Ltd, a domestic electrical contractor based at 80 Basford Park Road, Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire ST5 0PP. If you have any questions about this policy, please contact us at [email protected] or by calling 07771 552104.

What personal data we collect and why

We only collect personal data that you choose to give us by completing the contact form on this website. That data consists of your name, email address, telephone number (optional), and the message you write. We use this information solely to respond to your enquiry. We do not use it for marketing, we do not share it with third parties for commercial purposes, and we do not add you to any mailing list without your explicit consent.

Contact form submissions are delivered to us by email via Cloudflare Workers and are not stored in a database on this website. Emails are retained only for as long as necessary to handle your enquiry and are then deleted in the normal course of business.

Our lawful basis under UK GDPR

Our lawful basis for processing the personal data you submit via the contact form is legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR) — specifically, the legitimate interest of responding to a business enquiry you have initiated. Where you request a quote or ask us to carry out work, the basis may also be contract (Article 6(1)(b)). We do not process any special category data.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file placed on your device by a website you visit. The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) distinguishes between cookies that are strictly necessary for a service the user has requested and those used for analytics, advertising, or personalisation. Strictly necessary cookies do not require consent under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

This website uses no analytics cookies, no advertising cookies, and no personalisation cookies. The only cookies that may be set are strictly necessary ones placed by Cloudflare, the infrastructure provider that hosts and protects this site, and by Cloudflare Turnstile, the privacy-preserving bot-detection widget used on the contact form. These cookies are documented in full below.

Because all cookies on this site are strictly necessary, no cookie consent banner is required under PECR or UK GDPR. This position is consistent with the ICO's guidance that strictly necessary cookies are exempt from the consent requirement.

Cookie inventory

The table below lists every cookie that may be set when you visit this website, together with its purpose, duration, and the authority source used to document it. Cookie names, purposes, and durations are taken directly from Cloudflare's official cookie documentation (last reviewed May 2026).

Cookies used on this website
Cookie name	Set by	Purpose	Duration	Category
`cf_clearance`	Cloudflare	Stores proof that a browser challenge (e.g. Turnstile) has been passed, so the challenge is not repeated on subsequent requests to the same origin server.	30 minutes (session-based; renewed on activity)	Strictly necessary
`__cf_bm`	Cloudflare	Required to support Cloudflare Bot Management. Helps distinguish legitimate human visitors from automated bot traffic. Generated independently per site; does not track users across sites or sessions.	30 minutes	Strictly necessary
`_cfuvid`	Cloudflare	Used by Cloudflare Rate Limiting Rules to distinguish individual visitors who share the same IP address (e.g. users behind a NAT). Only set when rate limiting is active.	Session (cleared when browser is closed)	Strictly necessary
`__cfruid`	Cloudflare	Strictly necessary to support Cloudflare Rate Limiting (previous version). Manages incoming traffic and provides visibility on request origin.	Session	Strictly necessary
`cf_chl_rc_i` `cf_chl_rc_ni` `cf_chl_rc_m`	Cloudflare	Internal diagnostic cookies used by Cloudflare's Challenge Platform to identify production issues on client devices. Not used for tracking.	Session	Strictly necessary

Cloudflare Turnstile — the widget shown on the contact form — is documented by Cloudflare as not setting its own first-party cookies. Any cookies listed above that appear on the contact page are set by Cloudflare's infrastructure layer (the Challenge Platform) as part of the bot-protection process, not by Turnstile's JavaScript directly. See Cloudflare's community confirmation and the Cloudflare Turnstile Privacy Policy.

GDPR compliance statement

Birch Electrical Ltd is committed to handling personal data responsibly and in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. The following points summarise our compliance position:

No non-necessary cookies. This website does not use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, advertising networks, or any other tracking technology. No cookie consent banner is required.
Data minimisation. We collect only the personal data necessary to respond to your enquiry (name, email, optional phone, and message).
No data selling or sharing. Your personal data is never sold, rented, or shared with third parties for marketing or commercial purposes.
Data retention. Contact enquiry emails are retained only for as long as needed to handle your request and are then deleted in the normal course of business.
Security. This website is served exclusively over HTTPS. Form submissions are protected by Cloudflare Turnstile to prevent automated abuse.
Your rights. Under UK GDPR you have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or object to the processing of your personal data. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected]. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Third-party services

This website is hosted on Cloudflare Pages. By visiting this site, your browser communicates with Cloudflare's network. Cloudflare may process certain technical data (such as IP address and browser type) as part of providing its CDN and security services. This processing is governed by Cloudflare's Privacy Policy. Cloudflare acts as a data processor on our behalf for the purposes of hosting and protecting this website.

The contact page includes a link to our Google Business Profile. Clicking that link takes you to Google's platform, which is governed by Google's Privacy Policy. No Google scripts are loaded on this website.

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes will be published on this page with a revised "last updated" date. We encourage you to review this page periodically.