Your privacy, in plain terms

North & Hayes provides private executive-assistant support to founders and senior professionals. We know that trust is the whole point of what we do, so we treat your information with the same care we would want for our own. This policy explains, in plain language, what information we handle, why, who we share it with, how we protect it, and the rights you have.

1. Who we are

North & Hayes ("we", "us", "our") is the controller of the personal information described in this policy, except where we act on a client's behalf as a processor (see section 10).

You can reach us about anything in this policy, including any request about your data, at care@northandhayes.com.

2. What this policy covers

This policy covers personal information we handle when you visit our website, get in touch or book a call, become a client, or are matched with and supported by one of our assistants. It also explains how we handle the information we access inside a client's own accounts in order to do their work.

3. The information we handle

If you contact us or book a call. Your name, email address, any phone or scheduling details, and whatever you choose to tell us about what you need help with.

If you become a client. The details needed to set up and run your service: your contact details, your preferences and priorities, your schedule and time zone, billing details handled through our payment provider, and the agreements between us.

Information we access to do your work. To manage your inbox, calendar, travel, research, and admin, your assistant works within your accounts and will necessarily see the personal information they contain, including the details of people you correspond with, meet, or travel with. When we handle that information we are acting on your behalf, under your instructions (see section 10).

Recorded calls. The working video calls between you and your assistant are recorded, with your consent, for quality and as a record for your protection (see section 5).

Website and technical information. Basic technical data your browser sends when you visit the site, and any information you submit through our contact or booking forms.

4. Why we use your information, and our legal basis

• To respond to you and explore whether we are a fit. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in answering enquiries, and taking steps at your request before entering a contract.
• To provide the service. Legal basis: performance of our contract with you.
• To take payment and keep proper financial records. Legal basis: performance of our contract, and compliance with legal obligations such as tax record-keeping.
• To oversee quality and keep the service secure, including reviewing work and keeping the records described in this policy. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in delivering a reliable, secure service, balanced against your rights.
• To record calls. Legal basis: your consent (see section 5).
• To meet legal obligations and respond to lawful requests. Legal basis: compliance with a legal obligation.

We do not use your information to make decisions about you by automated means alone, and we do not use it for advertising.

5. Recorded calls

The working video calls between you and your assistant are recorded so there is a clear, shared record of what was agreed, and so we can review quality. We record only with your consent: a spoken notice is given at the start of each recorded call, and you can ask for any particular call, or all of your calls, not to be recorded. Recordings are treated as confidential, stored in an access-controlled location kept separate from other clients, and handled under our Security Standard.

6. Who we share your information with

We do not sell your information, and we do not share it for anyone else's marketing.

We share it only with:

• Your assistant and the team leader who oversees your service, so they can do the work and support you. They are bound by confidentiality in writing, by name.
• The service providers we rely on to run the business, such as our email and calendar platform, our encrypted password vault, our payment provider, our international payment service, and our scheduling and contact-form tools. Each is bound to protect your information and use it only to provide their service to us.
• Authorities or advisers, where we are legally required to, or to establish or defend legal claims.

7. Sending information outside your country

Some of the people who deliver your service, our assistants, are based in the Philippines, so your information may be handled there. Where the law requires safeguards for sending personal information to another country, we put them in place, including standard contractual clauses of the kind approved for international transfers, both for transfers from Europe and for the requirements that apply within the Philippines. You can ask us for more detail about these safeguards at care@northandhayes.com.

8. How long we keep your information

We keep your information only as long as we need it: for the life of our relationship, and for a limited period afterwards to handle any follow-up, disputes, or legal and tax obligations. When our work together ends, or if you ask us at any time, we return or securely delete the information we hold for you, except anything we are legally required to keep.

9. How we protect your information

We work to a written Security Standard. In short: your assistant works through delegated access or an encrypted vault and never holds your password; multi-factor authentication is on every account; each client has a separate, isolated workspace; access is removed promptly when our work ends; and confidentiality is signed by name. We would rather lose a task than cut a corner on your security.

10. When we act on your behalf (for our clients)

When your assistant handles the personal information inside your own accounts, for example your contacts, your correspondents, or your family's details, you are the controller of that information and we act as your processor. We handle it only on your instructions and to provide your service, under the terms of our client agreement and, where needed, a data-processing agreement. If someone whose data sits inside your accounts asks us about it, we will direct them to you.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have some or all of these rights over your personal information:

• Access a copy of the information we hold about you.
• Correct information that is wrong or incomplete.
• Delete your information, in certain circumstances.
• Restrict or object to how we use it, in certain circumstances.
• Portability: receive your information in a common, machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent, such as call recording.
• Complain to your data-protection authority. If you are in the European Union, that includes the authority in your country; in Portugal, this is the Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados (CNPD).

To exercise any of these, email care@northandhayes.com. We will respond within the time the law allows, normally within one month.

12. Cookies and website analytics

Our website uses only what it needs to work, and any measurement we use to understand how the site is performing is kept privacy-conscious. If we introduce cookies or analytics that require your consent, we will ask for it and update this policy.

13. Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle your information, we will update this page and change the date at the top. For significant changes, we will make the update clear.

14. How to contact us

For anything about your privacy, or to make any request above, email care@northandhayes.com and we will help.