Privacy policy

Last updated: February 2026

1. Who we are

SMS-Patrol ("we", "us") provides guard tour and security workforce software. Our address is West Wycombe Road, High Wycombe HP12 4AE, United Kingdom. You can contact us about anything on this page at info@sms-patrol.com or +44 208 133 1393.

This policy covers both our website and the SMS-Patrol platform. It is written to comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

2. Controller and processor

This distinction matters, because it changes who is responsible for what.

• Where we are the controller: information you give us directly — website enquiries, demo requests, account administration, billing and support correspondence.
• Where we are the processor: data your company puts into the platform about your own staff, sites and clients — including guard names, shift records, checkpoint scans, incident reports and location data. Your company is the controller for that data and decides how it is used. We process it on your instructions under our service agreement.

3. What we collect

Website visitors

• Name, email address, phone number and company name, when you submit a demo request or contact form.
• The content of your message.
• Basic technical information such as IP address, browser type and pages visited, used to keep the site secure and to understand which pages are useful.

Customer accounts

• Account holder name, business contact details and billing information.
• Login credentials (passwords are stored hashed, never in readable form).
• Support correspondence.

Data your company enters about its staff and operations

• Officer names, contact details and employment identifiers you choose to record.
• Shift bookings, clock-on and clock-off times.
• Location data recorded while an officer is clocked on to a shift. Location is not recorded outside booked shifts.
• Checkpoint scans, patrol records, incident reports and any photographs attached to them.
• Timesheet, rate and invoicing information.

4. Why we process it, and on what lawful basis

• To respond to enquiries — legitimate interests, and your consent where you have asked us to contact you.
• To provide the service and support it — performance of a contract.
• To bill you and keep accounting records — contract and legal obligation.
• To keep the platform secure and prevent abuse — legitimate interests.
• To meet legal and regulatory obligations — legal obligation.

Where we act as processor for your staff data, your company is responsible for establishing its own lawful basis for processing that data — including for location tracking — and for informing your staff.

5. Guard location data

This is the area customers and their staff ask about most, so we set it out explicitly:

• Location is recorded only while an officer is clocked on to a booked shift.
• Tracking stops at clock-off. Nothing is recorded on an officer's own time.
• Location data is visible only to authorised users within your own company account.
• Retention periods are configurable by your company.
• We do not sell, share or use location data for any purpose other than providing the service.

If you are an employer, we recommend you tell staff in writing what is recorded and why, and reflect it in your own privacy notice. Ask us and we will provide sample wording — though you should have your own adviser check it.

6. Who we share data with

We do not sell personal data. We share it only with:

• Infrastructure and hosting providers operating our UK/EU cloud servers.
• Email delivery providers used to send system notifications and reports.
• Payment and accounting providers used to process subscriptions.
• Professional advisers such as accountants and legal advisers, where necessary.
• Law enforcement or regulators, where we are legally required to do so.

All providers are bound by contract to protect the data and to process it only on our instructions.

7. Where data is stored

Data is hosted on cloud infrastructure located in the UK and European Economic Area. Where any transfer outside the UK/EEA is necessary, we use appropriate safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

8. How long we keep it

• Website enquiries: up to 24 months from last contact, unless you ask us to delete them sooner.
• Account and operational data: for the life of your subscription, and for a reasonable period afterwards to allow reactivation and export.
• Billing records: six years, as required by UK tax law.
• Operational records inside the platform: according to the retention period your company configures.

9. Security

• Data is encrypted in transit using TLS.
• Passwords are stored hashed and salted.
• Access is controlled by role-based permissions inside your account.
• Access to production systems by our staff is restricted and logged.
• We keep regular backups and test restoration.

No system is completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to individuals, we will notify the ICO within 72 hours and inform affected customers without undue delay.

10. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Be told what personal data we hold about you and get a copy of it.
• Have inaccurate data corrected.
• Have data erased, where there is no overriding reason to keep it.
• Restrict or object to processing in certain circumstances.
• Receive your data in a portable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time, where consent is the basis we rely on.

To exercise any of these, email info@sms-patrol.com. We will respond within one month. If you are an officer whose data is held by your employer in our platform, please contact your employer first, as they control that data.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

11. Cookies

This website uses only what is necessary to function. We do not set advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. Pages that embed a Google Map load content from Google, which may set its own cookies — you can avoid this by not visiting the contact page, and Google's own privacy policy applies to that content.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed. Material changes affecting customers will be notified by email.

13. Contact

Questions about privacy or data protection: info@sms-patrol.com, +44 208 133 1393, or write to us at West Wycombe Road, High Wycombe HP12 4AE, United Kingdom.