Privacy policy

1. Who we are

1.1 Halo International Relocations is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. That means we decide what is collected and why, and we are accountable for it.

1.2 Our registered details are: [registered company name], registered in England and Wales, company number 17498255. Registered office: 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF.

1.3 For anything about your personal information, contact us at privacy@halointernationalrelocations.com, by telephone on 07749 924755, or by post at [postal address].

1.4 We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under registration number [ICO registration number].

2. What we collect

2.1 When you enquire. Your name, email address, telephone number, the address you are moving from, the country and address you are moving to, your approximate moving dates, and whatever you tell us about what you are shipping.

2.2 When we survey. A room-by-room inventory of your belongings, their approximate values, and notes on access at both properties. If the survey is by video call we do not record it unless you agree, and we will say so at the time.

2.3 When you become a customer. Billing details, payment records, correspondence with us, and the delivery address at your destination.

2.4 What customs requires. Passport number and expiry, visa or residence permit details, date of birth, nationality, national insurance or equivalent tax number, and in many countries a copy of the passport itself. The exact list depends on the country and we will tell you what yours needs.

2.5 If you use the self survey. The inventory you build and the contact details you enter. Nothing is sent to us until you press send.

2.6 When you visit this website. Your IP address, the pages you viewed and basic technical information about your browser, held in standard server logs by our hosting provider.

2.7 We do not ask for, and do not want, information we have no use for. If a form seems to ask more than a move requires, please tell us.

3. How we get it

3.1 Almost all of it comes directly from you — through a form on this site, by email, by telephone, or during a survey.

3.2 Occasionally it reaches us from someone else. An employer arranging a relocation for a member of staff, a relocation management company, a landlord or letting agent, or a family member arranging a move on your behalf. Where that happens we will make ourselves known to you within a month.

3.3 If you come to us through an introducer or comparison site, we receive the details you gave them.

4. Why we use it, and our lawful basis

4.1 Data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for each use. Ours are these.

4.2 To quote for and carry out your move — performance of a contract. Preparing a quotation, planning the job, packing, shipping, storage and delivery. Without this information we cannot quote and cannot move you.

4.3 To meet customs, quarantine and border requirements — legal obligation. Declarations to HMRC and to the authorities of your destination country. These are not optional and we cannot ship without making them.

4.4 To keep proper business records — legal obligation. Accounting and tax records, and records we are required to retain.

4.5 To handle claims, disputes and insurance — legitimate interests. Establishing, defending or settling a claim, and answering our insurers. Our interest is in defending ourselves properly; we have weighed that against your privacy and consider it proportionate because it is limited to what a claim needs.

4.6 To improve what we do — legitimate interests. Reviewing how a move went so the next one runs better. Wherever possible we do this without identifying anyone.

4.7 To send you marketing — consent, or legitimate interests where the law allows. Clause 11 explains this and how to stop it.

4.8 Where we rely on legitimate interests you can object, and we will stop unless we can show compelling grounds that override your rights. Clause 10 explains how.

5. Special category data

5.1 Most of what we hold is not sensitive. Sometimes a move means we learn something that is.

5.2 You may tell us about a health condition or a disability because it affects how we should carry out the move — access at a property, help with particular items, or the timing of a delivery. You may tell us about a religious or cultural requirement affecting how certain belongings are handled.

5.3 We use that information only to carry out the move safely and appropriately. Where we need a lawful basis beyond contract we rely on your explicit consent, and you can withdraw it at any time.

5.4 We do not record this information unless there is an operational reason, we keep it to the smallest number of people who need it, and we delete it when the move is complete.

5.5 Please do not send us medical records or similar documents. We do not need them.

6. Who we share it with

6.1 An international move involves other organisations. These are the categories.

6.2 Our destination agent. A removals company in the country you are moving to, who clears your shipment through customs and delivers it. They receive your name, contact details, destination address and inventory, and whatever customs there requires. We tell you which company this is before your goods leave.

6.3 Shipping lines, airlines and hauliers. Your name, addresses and consignment details, as required to carry the goods.

6.4 Customs, quarantine and border authorities. In the UK and at your destination, as the law of each country requires.

6.5 Insurers and, if there is a claim, loss adjusters. Your valued inventory and the circumstances of the claim.

6.6 Our service providers. Our website host, email and document systems, accounting software, and any storage provider used for your goods. They act on our instructions and are bound by contract to protect your information.

6.7 Professional advisers — solicitors, accountants, auditors — where we need advice or are required to produce records.

6.8 A buyer, if the business or part of it is sold or transferred.

6.9 Anyone we are legally required to disclose to, including a court, a regulator or a law enforcement body.

6.10 We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with anyone for their own marketing.

Please note: information given to a customs authority is then handled under that country's law, not ours, and we have no control over what happens to it afterwards. That is an unavoidable consequence of importing goods into another country.

7. Sending information overseas

7.1 Moving you abroad necessarily means sending your information abroad. There is no way around it.

7.2 Some destinations have been assessed by the UK government as offering adequate protection, and transfers there need nothing further. Many do not.

7.3 Where a country has not been assessed as adequate, we put in place the safeguards the law requires — normally the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the European Commission's standard contractual clauses — and we check that our agent can meet them.

7.4 Disclosures to a customs or border authority are made because the law of that country requires them. In those cases we rely on the exception in data protection law for transfers necessary to perform a contract with you, or necessary for important reasons of public interest. Safeguards of the kind described above do not apply to a government acting under its own law.

7.5 You can ask us for details of the safeguards used for your move, and we will provide them.

8. How long we keep it

8.1 Enquiries that do not become a move: [12] months, then deleted.

8.2 Completed moves: six years from completion. This matches the period in which a claim can normally be brought in England and Wales, and we need the file to defend one.

8.3 Accounting and tax records: six years from the end of the accounting period, as tax law requires.

8.4 Customs declarations: as long as UK and destination customs law requires, normally at least four years.

8.5 Marketing preferences: until you withdraw consent, plus a record of the withdrawal itself so we do not contact you again by mistake.

8.6 Special category data under clause 5: deleted when the move is complete.

8.7 CCTV at our premises, where in use: [31] days unless needed for an incident.

8.8 At the end of a retention period we delete or securely destroy the information, or anonymise it so it can no longer identify you.

9. How we keep it safe

9.1 Access is limited to the people who need it to do their job.

9.2 Our systems are password protected and, where available, secured with multi-factor authentication.

9.3 This website is served over an encrypted connection, and information you send through its forms is encrypted in transit.

9.4 Paper records are held securely and destroyed confidentially.

9.5 Staff are trained on handling personal information, and on what to do if something goes wrong.

9.6 If a breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights, we will report it to the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours, and tell you directly where the risk is high.

9.7 No system is perfectly secure, and we do not claim otherwise. Please do not send passport copies or payment details by ordinary email — ask us for a secure method and we will provide one.

10. Your rights

10.1 You have the following rights over your personal information. They are free to exercise.

10.2 To be told what we hold and to receive a copy of it.

10.3 To have it corrected if it is wrong or incomplete.

10.4 To have it deleted, where we no longer have a reason to hold it. This does not extend to records we are legally required to keep, or which we need to defend a claim.

10.5 To restrict how we use it while a dispute about its accuracy or our use of it is resolved.

10.6 To object to processing based on legitimate interests. If you object to direct marketing we will stop, without exception.

10.7 To portability — to receive the information you gave us in a machine-readable format, or have it sent to another organisation, where it was provided by you and we process it by consent or for a contract.

10.8 To withdraw consent at any time, where we relied on it. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything done before you withdrew it.

10.9 To exercise any of these, email privacy@halointernationalrelocations.com or write to us. We will respond within one month. If a request is complex we may extend that by up to two further months, and we will tell you why within the first month.

10.10 We may need to confirm your identity before releasing information. We will ask for the least we can.

11. Marketing

11.1 If you ask us for a quotation, we may send you information about our services that is relevant to the move you enquired about. You can stop this at any time.

11.2 Every marketing email carries an unsubscribe link, and we act on it immediately. You can also simply reply and ask.

11.3 We do not pass your details to anyone else for their marketing.

11.4 Stopping marketing does not stop the messages we need to send about a move you have booked.

12. Cookies and this website

12.1 This website does not use advertising cookies, analytics cookies or tracking pixels, and does not share your browsing with advertising networks.

12.2 The tools on this site — the move estimator, the calculators and the self survey — run entirely in your browser. What you enter stays on your device until you choose to send it to us.

12.3 Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs, including IP addresses, for security and to keep the site running. These are kept for a short period and are not used to build a profile of you.

12.4 Fonts on this site are loaded from Google Fonts, which means your browser requests them from Google and Google receives your IP address as part of that request.

12.5 Because we set no non-essential cookies, this site does not ask you to accept any. If that changes we will add a cookie banner and update this policy first.

13. Children

13.1 Our services are for adults and we do not market to children.

13.2 A family move obviously involves children, and customs may require their names, dates of birth and passport details. We collect those from the adult arranging the move, use them only for the customs formalities, and hold them under clause 8.

14. Automated decisions

14.1 We do not make decisions about you by automated means alone, and we do not profile you.

14.2 The calculators on this website produce an indication for your own use. They do not decide anything, and every quotation is prepared by a person.

15. Complaints

15.1 If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please tell us first at privacy@halointernationalrelocations.com. We would rather put it right ourselves.

15.2 You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, which regulates data protection in the UK. Their helpline is 0303 123 1113 and their website is ico.org.uk.

15.3 Complaining to us first is not a condition of complaining to them.

16. Changes to this policy

16.1 We review this policy at least once a year, and whenever we change something material about how we handle personal information.

16.2 The current version is always the one published on this page, and the date it took effect is shown at the top.

16.3 If we make a significant change, we will say so clearly here, and tell customers whose move is in progress.

Version 1.0 · in force from [date] · © Halo International Relocations