Who we are
Ascot Cars provides taxi and private hire transport services in Ascot and the surrounding areas.
 
For the purposes of UK data protection law, Ascot Cars is the data controller for the personal information we collect and use to provide our services.
 
Business name: Ascot Cars
Website: Ascotcars.com
Email: claire@ascotcars.com
Telephone: 01344 297297
Address: Station Hill, Ascot SL5 9EG
 
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we use your personal information, please contact us using the details above.

We may collect and use the following types of personal information:

Booking and journey information

When you make a booking by phone, through our website, by email, through our app, or through a third-party booking platform, we may collect:

• Your name

• Telephone number

• Email address

• Pick-up address

• Destination address

• Date and time of travel

• Journey notes or special instructions

• Flight, train or event details, where relevant

• Booking history

• Vehicle preferences

• Payment status and fare information

Account and app information

If you use our booking app powered by iCabbi, we or iCabbi may collect:

• Your account details

• App login information

• Device information

• Booking history

• Location information, where you allow this

• Communication preferences

• App usage information

Location services may be used to help set your pick-up location, track your driver, or improve the booking experience. You can control location permissions through your device settings.

Payment information

When you pay for a journey, we may collect payment-related information, such as:

• Payment method

• Transaction reference

• Fare amount

• Date and time of payment

• Billing details, where required

Card payment details are usually processed securely by our payment provider or app/payment platform. We do not normally store full card details ourselves.

Contact and enquiry information

When you contact us, we may collect:

• Your name

• Contact details

• The content of your message

• Any information you provide during a phone call, email, website form enquiry, complaint, review or feedback request

Driver, staff and business contact information

If you are a driver, supplier, contractor, business customer or other professional contact, we may collect:

• Name

• Contact details

• Business details

• Licensing information, where relevant

• Vehicle information, where relevant

• Payment or invoicing details

• Contract and work-related information

Website information

When you use our website, we may collect:

• IP address

• Browser type

• Device type

• Pages visited

• Time spent on the website

• Referring website

• Cookie information

• Analytics information

Please see our Cookie Policy, where available, for more information about how cookies are used.

We may collect personal information when you:

• Make a taxi booking

• Use our website

• Use our app or a third-party booking platform such as iCabbi

• Call, email or message us

• Complete an enquiry form

• Pay for a journey

• Leave a review or provide feedback

• Use our services as a passenger

• Work with us as a driver, supplier, contractor or business customer

 
We may also receive information from third parties, including:

• iCabbi or other booking technology providers

• Payment processors

• Corporate account holders

• Hotels, venues or businesses booking transport on your behalf

• Drivers completing journeys

• Law enforcement, licensing authorities or insurers, where necessary and lawful

We use personal information for the following purposes:

To provide taxi and private hire services
We use your information to:

• Create and manage bookings

• Allocate drivers and vehicles

• Confirm pick-up and destination details

• Contact you about your journey

• Provide journey updates

• Manage lost property enquiries

• Handle cancellations, changes or delays

• Provide customer support

Our lawful basis for this is usually contract, because we need the information to provide the service you have requested.

To process payments and manage accounts
We use your information to:

• Take and record payments

• Manage invoices and receipts

• Handle refunds or payment issues

• Manage corporate or regular customer accounts

• Keep financial records

Our lawful basis for this may be contract, legal obligation or legitimate interests, depending on the situation.

To use iCabbi and other booking systems

We use iCabbi and may use other third-party systems to help manage bookings, dispatch vehicles, communicate with passengers, process app bookings and support the operation of our taxi services.

When you use the iCabbi-powered app, your personal information may be processed through iCabbi’s technology platform. Ascot Cars remains responsible for how your booking information is used for our taxi services. iCabbi may also process certain information in line with its own privacy terms, particularly where it provides app, technical, analytics or platform support.

We recommend that you also read any privacy information provided within the app.

To communicate with you
We may use your contact details to:

• Confirm bookings

• Send journey updates

• Respond to enquiries

• Handle complaints

• Ask for feedback

• Send service-related messages

• Notify you of changes to our services

Our lawful basis is usually contract or legitimate interests.

For safety, security and fraud prevention
We may use personal information to:

• Help protect passengers, drivers and staff

• Investigate complaints or incidents

• Prevent misuse of our services

• Detect fraud or unpaid fares

• Support insurance claims

• Respond to legal or regulatory requests

Our lawful basis may be legitimate interests, legal obligation, or in rare cases vital interests where safety is at risk.

To comply with legal and licensing obligations
We may use and keep certain information to comply with:

• Taxi and private hire licensing rules

• Accounting and tax laws

• Insurance requirements

• Law enforcement requests

• Health and safety duties

• Data protection obligations

Our lawful basis for this is legal obligation.

For marketing
Where permitted by law, we may contact you about our services, offers or updates.
We will only send electronic marketing where we have your consent or where the law allows us to contact existing customers about similar services. You can opt out of marketing at any time by contacting us or using the unsubscribe option where available.

Our lawful bases for using personal data
Under UK data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for using your personal information. Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on:

• Contract: where we need your information to provide a taxi booking or related service.

• Legal obligation: where we need to comply with tax, licensing, insurance, regulatory or legal requirements.

• Legitimate interests: where we use your information to operate and improve our business, manage bookings, prevent fraud, handle complaints, keep records and provide a safe service.

• Consent: where you have given clear consent, such as for certain marketing messages or optional app permissions.

• Vital interests: where information is needed to protect someone’s life or safety in an emergency.

Who we share personal information with
We may share personal information with trusted third parties where necessary, including:

• Drivers providing your journey

• iCabbi and other booking or dispatch technology providers

• Payment processors

• IT and website hosting providers

• Email, SMS and communications providers

• Accountants, legal advisers and insurers

• Corporate account customers, where they booked or paid for the journey

• Hotels, venues or other organisations involved in arranging your transport

• Local licensing authorities

• Police, courts, regulators or government bodies where required by law

We only share the information needed for the relevant purpose and expect third-party providers to protect your information appropriately.

iCabbi app and third-party services
Ascot Cars may use iCabbi to provide booking, dispatch and passenger app services. When you book through the app, your personal information may be processed by iCabbi to support the booking, manage the journey, provide app functionality and deliver related technology services.
This may include your name, contact details, pick-up and destination information, location data, booking history, payment-related information and device information.
iCabbi may act as a processor for Ascot Cars in relation to taxi bookings made with us, and may also act as an independent controller for certain data it collects for its own platform, security, analytics or service improvement purposes. Please check the privacy information available in the app for further details.
Ascot Cars is not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites, platforms or services that are not under our control.

International transfers
Some of our service providers, including app, cloud, payment, communication or IT providers, may process personal information outside the UK.
Where personal information is transferred outside the UK, we will take steps to ensure it is protected in line with UK data protection law. This may include using adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, international data transfer agreements or other approved safeguards.

How long we keep your information
We only keep personal information for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy.
Typical retention periods may include:

• Booking and journey records: kept for as long as needed for service, complaint, licensing, insurance and business record purposes

• Payment and invoice records: usually kept for up to 6 years for tax and accounting purposes

• Customer enquiries and complaints: kept for as long as needed to respond and maintain appropriate records

• Marketing records: kept until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent, unless a longer record is needed to respect your preferences

• Website analytics: kept in line with our cookie and analytics settings

• Driver, contractor and business records: kept for the duration of the relationship and for a reasonable period afterwards where required by law or business need

We may keep some records for longer where required for legal, regulatory, insurance, dispute resolution or fraud prevention purposes.
 
How we protect your information
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration or destruction.
These measures may include:

• Secure booking and dispatch systems

• Access controls

• Password protection

• Staff and driver confidentiality requirements

• Secure payment processing

• Limited access to personal data

• Regular review of systems and suppliers

No system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold.

 Your data protection rights
Under UK data protection law, you have rights over your personal information. These may include:

• The right to be informed about how your data is used

• The right to access your personal data

• The right to correct inaccurate or incomplete data

• The right to request deletion of your data

• The right to restrict how your data is used

• The right to object to certain uses of your data

• The right to data portability, where applicable

• The right to withdraw consent, where processing is based on consent

• The right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office

These rights are not absolute and may depend on the circumstances. For example, we may need to keep some information to comply with legal, licensing, accounting, insurance or regulatory obligations.
To exercise your rights, please contact us using the details in section 1.

 Marketing preferences
You can ask us to stop sending marketing messages at any time.
You can opt out by:

• Clicking unsubscribe in a marketing email, where available

• Replying STOP to marketing SMS messages, where available

• Contacting us directly

Even if you opt out of marketing, we may still contact you about active bookings, customer service matters, safety notices, payment issues or other service-related messages.

Cookies and website tracking
Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to help it work properly, improve performance, understand website traffic and support marketing or analytics.
Cookies may collect information such as your IP address, device type, browser type and pages visited.
Where required, we will ask for your consent before using non-essential cookies. You can usually control cookies through your browser settings or through any cookie settings tool available on our website.

Children’s data
Our services are generally intended for adults making transport bookings. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children for marketing purposes.
Where a booking is made for a child or young person, the booking should usually be made by a parent, guardian, school, business, local authority or other responsible adult.

CCTV, call recording and vehicle data
Some vehicles, offices or booking systems may use CCTV, dashcams, call recording or similar technology for safety, security, training, complaint handling, insurance or legal purposes.
Where used, this information will only be accessed where necessary and will be kept for a limited period unless needed for an investigation, complaint, insurance claim or legal matter.

Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we use your personal information, please contact us first so we can try to resolve the issue.
You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.
Information Commissioner’s Office
Website: ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1113

Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal requirements, technology or business operations.
The latest version will be published on our website with the updated date shown at the top.