How we use your information

You can contact us about privacy through the contact page. This notice may be supplemented by project, contract or employment information where a different purpose or retention period applies.

Enquiries and project work

An enquiry may include your name, contact details, organisation, message, project location and attached documents. We use this information to respond and take steps at your request before an appointment. Commissioned work can also involve client contacts, design records, site photographs, correspondence and technical evidence needed to deliver the agreed service.

Keep the information relevant. Do not send passwords, payment-card information, sensitive personal records or unrelated documents through the website.

Documents attached to an enquiry are too large to travel by email, so they are held on our own server and the enquiry message carries a private download link instead. Those files are deleted automatically 90 days after they are sent. Where an enquiry becomes a commissioned project, the relevant documents are kept under the project record and its own retention requirements.

Cookies and Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 to see which pages and tools are used, so that we can improve them. It is switched off until you choose. On your first visit a banner asks whether to accept analytics. Until you accept, the analytics script is not loaded, your browser makes no connection to Google from this site and no analytics cookies are set. Declining keeps it that way, and the site and the calculators work normally either way.

If you accept, Google Analytics sets two cookies in your browser, _ga and _ga_XSPJ006M44, which recognise a returning browser and group activity into visits. Both expire two years after they are last updated. It records the pages viewed, an approximate location derived from your IP address, the referring site and broad device and browser information. Google Analytics does not store your IP address. We have not enabled advertising features, remarketing or Google Signals, and the consent settings we send refuse advertising and personalisation storage.

Our lawful basis for these cookies is your consent. You can withdraw it at any time through the Cookie settings link at the bottom of any page. Declining after you have accepted clears the analytics cookies and stops the script loading again. Your choice is kept in your browser’s local storage under briary-cookie-consent so that you are not asked again on the same device; that entry exists only to honour your decision and is not used for any other purpose.

Google acts as our processor for this analytics data and may process it outside the UK under its standard data-protection terms and transfer safeguards. This is separate from the Tool Insights statistics and the Tool User records described below, which stay on our own systems.

Anonymous Tool Insights

Our separate Tool Insights system records the tool, an action such as opening or completing it, a broad outcome, device class, referrer category and a pseudonymous daily visitor identifier. These statistics help us understand use and improve the tools. The custom analytics records do not contain names, email addresses, project addresses, project references, calculation inputs or raw IP addresses.

The daily identifier is used for approximate usage counts, not as proof that each event or record is a different person. Anonymous usage files are retained for up to 18 months.

Details supplied in tools

Most tools contain optional fields for the heading of a project or report. If you supply them, we may retain the permitted fields when you produce a report or save the project. Details are not uploaded as you type. A tool that has no identifying fields does not require you to add contact details to use it.

Depending on the fields present in that tool, the record may contain a name, organisation, email, phone, role or accreditation, assessor, client, site or project name, project reference, plot or unit and project address. It also records the tool, the action, the time and a single line describing the headline result, such as an estimated consumption figure and whether it met the applicable target. We do not retain uploaded drawings, underlays, free-text notes, calculation geometry, material inputs, browser local-storage contents, passwords or payment information in this facility. The full calculation stays on your own device. Raw IP addresses are not stored in the personal Tool User record.

Why we retain tool details

We use these limited first-party records to understand which projects and organisations use the tools and, where relevant, support operational follow-up about that activity. We rely on our legitimate interests in understanding and supporting use of our services. We limit the information and actions recorded, restrict access and take your rights and reasonable expectations into account. You may object to this use by contacting us.

Providing details in a tool does not subscribe you to marketing, create a newsletter subscription or trigger an automatic email. These records are not sent to third-party advertising systems. We do not make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects about you solely through this tool recording.

Emailing a report to you

Reports are produced on your own device and sent to you by email. To do that we ask for an email address at the point of sending, and the finished PDF is transmitted to our server so that it can be attached to that message. The address is used to send that report and for nothing else: it does not subscribe you to anything, and it is not added to a mailing list. Where the address is one you have already given as your contact details in the same tool, it is retained as part of the tool record described above; where it is not, it is used to send the message and is not retained separately.

Email is sent through Amazon Simple Email Service. Delivery information such as bounces and complaints is processed so that we can keep the service working and stop sending to addresses that do not accept mail.

Retention and protection of tool records

Identifying Tool User records are encrypted with authenticated encryption on our own server before they are stored, so they are held as ciphertext and can be decrypted only through authorised administration. Records are kept in Amazon DynamoDB in the United Kingdom region, and Amazon Web Services acts as our processor for that storage and for sending email. Because the records are encrypted before they are sent, the storage provider does not hold readable contact details. They remain separate from anonymous statistics. The standard retention period is 12 months, after which records are deleted under the retention process and by an automatic expiry on the stored record. A period set for a particular purpose will be explained where it differs.

We keep a separate administrative access log containing the time, CMS user identifier and action, such as viewing or deleting records. It does not duplicate the identifying tool information. Access controls, protected storage and software maintenance provide additional protection.

Website operation and service providers

Hosting and email providers process information needed to operate the website and handle enquiries. Standard server security logs may include the requested page, time, browser information and IP address; these are separate from Briary’s custom analytics and personal Tool User records. Access and retention are limited to operational and security needs.

Project information may be shared with relevant project parties only where permitted by the applicable law, confidentiality duties and assessment-scheme controls. A client instruction does not by itself remove restrictions on sharing energy-assessment data. Information may also be shared with advisers or authorities where lawfully required. Information is not sold for advertising. Where a provider processes information outside the UK, applicable data-transfer safeguards are required.

Other business records

Project and business records are retained according to their purpose, contractual requirements and relevant legal, professional or insurance obligations. Energy-certificate assessment records are subject to separate scheme requirements, including the minimum fifteen-year retention period in EASOB Level 2 SORs for England and Wales. This is distinct from the twelve-month website Tool User retention period. Enquiries that do not proceed are not retained indefinitely. A tool record that forms part of an agreed project may be handled under the separate project record and its explained retention requirements.

Your rights and contact route

Depending on the purpose and circumstances, you may have rights to access, correct, erase, restrict or receive your personal information, and to object to its use. Where consent is the basis, it can be withdrawn. Some rights are subject to legal exemptions or the basis for processing.

Use the privacy contact route with enough information to identify the relevant activity. We may need to verify your identity before releasing or changing records. You can also raise a concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

External tools and links

The local-authority finder sends a postcode lookup from your browser to a public postcode service, which handles the request under its own terms. External links lead to websites with their own privacy information. Read the notice for a third-party service before supplying information there.

Notice updates

This notice was updated on 15 September 2026 to describe the Google Analytics cookies, the choice banner and how to withdraw consent. It was updated on 11 September 2026 to describe how documents attached to an enquiry are stored and deleted. It was updated on 9 September 2026 to distinguish website Tool User records from energy-assessment evidence retention and sharing requirements. We update the notice when the purpose, scope or operation of website processing changes.