Who we are
This notice explains how Big Blue Badger uses personal information, and the choices you have. We have written it in plain English. If anything is unclear, please ask us.
Data controller: Big Blue Badger. [Legal entity details to be confirmed]
For anything to do with your personal information, email hello@bigbluebadger.com.
Who this notice is for
We invest in and buy owner-managed trade businesses in Scotland. To do that, we sometimes contact the owners and directors of businesses that look like a good fit, to ask whether they would be open to a confidential conversation. This notice covers:
- owners, directors and senior managers of businesses we contact, or may contact;
- anyone who contacts us; and
- visitors to this website.
What information we hold
- Your name and your role in the business, for example owner or director.
- Business contact details, such as a business email address, phone number and postal address.
- Publicly available information about the business, such as its Companies House record, filed accounts, officers, website and directory listings.
- Correspondence between us, and notes of any conversations we have.
- If you ask us not to contact you again, a record of that request.
We do not ask for, or keep, sensitive information such as health details.
Where it comes from
- Public sources: Companies House, the business's own website, business directories and similar published sources.
- You, when you reply to us, email us or speak with us.
- Business brokers or advisers who introduce a business to us, where the business has asked them to.
Why we use it, and our lawful basis
We use this information to:
- identify businesses that might be a good fit for investment or acquisition;
- contact owners to ask, discreetly, whether they would be open to a conversation;
- hold those conversations, and assess and progress any opportunity that follows; and
- keep a record of anyone who has asked not to be contacted, so we respect that.
Our lawful basis is legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the UK GDPR). Our interest is finding and discussing investment and acquisition opportunities with the people who own and run businesses. We have weighed that against your interests: we use business contact details in a business context, we keep what we hold to a minimum, and saying no is easy and final.
When we contact you by email we do so in line with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. Every approach tells you how to opt out, and if you do, we will not contact you again.
If a conversation develops into a transaction, we may also rely on taking steps to enter into a contract with you, and on our legal obligations, for example keeping proper records.
How long we keep it
- No reply, or a polite no: if we contact you and you do not reply, or you are not interested, we delete or suppress your details within 24 months of our last contact.
- If you ask us not to contact you: we keep a short record (your name, the business, your email address and the date) on a suppression list, so that you are not contacted again by mistake. We keep it for as long as we make approaches to businesses.
- If a conversation goes further: we keep the related records for as long as discussions continue. If a transaction takes place, we keep what we need for legal, tax and accounting purposes, normally for up to six years after completion.
Who we share it with
We never sell your information. We only share it:
- with our professional advisers (such as solicitors and accountants) and funders, and only where a conversation is going ahead and they need it;
- with service providers who help us run the business, such as email and IT hosting, who act only on our instructions and under contract; and
- where the law requires us to.
Some service providers may store information outside the UK. Where they do, we make sure the safeguards required by UK data protection law are in place.
This website
This website does not use cookies, analytics or advertising trackers, and it does not load anything from other websites. Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes technical information such as IP addresses in order to deliver the site and protect it from attack.
The contact form on the home page does not send anything to us. It opens a draft email in your own email app, and nothing is shared unless you choose to send it.
Your rights
You have the right to:
- access the personal information we hold about you;
- correct anything that is wrong;
- object to how we use it. If you ask us to stop contacting you, we will stop, with no questions asked;
- have it erased, or its use restricted, in some circumstances.
To use any of these rights, email hello@bigbluebadger.com. It is free, and we will reply within one month.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk.
Changes to this notice
We may update this notice from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed.
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