1. Two different situations, and they are not the same
DeskCaller answers phone calls on behalf of business customers. That means personal data reaches us in two distinct ways, and our responsibilities differ:
(a) You are our customer, or thinking of becoming one. You fill in our form, sign up, or email us. Here we decide how your data is used, so we are the controller, and the rest of this policy tells you what we do.
(b) You telephoned one of our customers. A plumber, roofer or cleaning firm forwards their business line to us, and our automated assistant answered your call. Here our customer decides why the call is handled and recorded — they are the controller and we are their processor. We handle your call only to deliver the service to them, and we do not use it for anything of our own. Section 7 explains what this means for you and who to contact.
2. What we collect, and why — our customers and enquirers
| What | Why | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Name, email, business name, industry, phone number, and anything you write in a message | To reply to your enquiry and give you a demonstration | Legitimate interests — responding to someone who contacted us about our product |
| Account details, business address, company number | To provide the service, verify who you are, and meet our own regulatory obligations as a business assigning phone numbers | Contract, and legal obligation |
| Billing details and payment records | To take payment and keep accounting records | Contract, and legal obligation |
| Usage records — call counts, minutes, dates | To operate your account, bill you accurately and show you your usage | Contract |
| Support correspondence | To help you and to improve how we support customers | Legitimate interests |
| Website usage data — pages viewed, approximate location, device and browser | To understand how the site is used and improve it | Consent, where cookies or similar technologies are involved |
We do not sell personal data, and we do not use it for advertising.
Card details: we never see or store your full card number. Payments are handled by our payment provider, Stripe, on their own systems.
3. Phone numbers we assign to customers
When you become a customer we obtain a UK phone number and assign it to your business. To do that lawfully we have to verify who you are and keep a record of those checks, including your registered company details, business address and the nature of your business. This is required of us by the framework governing UK telephone numbers, and we keep those records for as long as you hold the number and for six years afterwards.
4. Who we share data with
We use a small number of service providers who process data on our behalf, under contract, only on our instructions. The current list, including what each one does and where it is located, is published at deskcaller.com/subprocessors. We will update that page before adding or replacing any of them.
We also share data where we are legally required to — for example with a regulator, or with the provider of a phone number where they are obliged to verify its end user.
5. Sending data outside the UK
DeskCaller is operated from the United Kingdom, and your account data and call recordings are stored in the UK.
Some of the technology providers we rely on are based outside the UK — for example our speech and language processing and our payment provider. Where personal data reaches them, the transfer is made under the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, as applicable. The sub-processor page at deskcaller.com/subprocessors states where each provider is located and which safeguard applies.
6. How long we keep things
| Enquiries that do not become customers | 12 months from last contact |
| Customer account records | Duration of the contract, then 6 years for accounting and legal purposes |
| Number-assignment verification records | Duration of the assignment, then 6 years |
| Call recordings and transcripts | Controlled by our customer, who sets the retention period. Our default is 90 days unless they choose otherwise. See section 7. |
| Website analytics | 14 months |
7. If you called one of our customers
Our automated assistant tells you at the start of the call that it is an automated assistant and that the call is recorded and transcribed.
The business you rang is the controller of that recording. They decided to use an answering service, and they decide how long recordings are kept and what happens to them. If you want a copy of your call, want it deleted, or object to it being recorded, contact that business directly — they can action it, and we will help them do so. If you cannot reach them, write to us at privacy@deskcaller.com and we will pass your request on and tell you who they are.
What we do with your call: pass the enquiry to the business, notify them by text message, and keep the recording and transcript so they can review it. We do not use your call for our own purposes — not to train or tune our systems, not for analytics, not for benchmarking, and not for marketing.
8. Your rights
You can ask us to give you a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, restrict how we use it, or transfer it to someone else. You can object to processing we base on legitimate interests, and withdraw consent where we relied on it. Exercising these rights is free and we will respond within one month.
Write to privacy@deskcaller.com.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office — ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113. We would rather you came to us first, but you are not obliged to.
9. Cookies
Our site uses cookies and similar technologies. Non-essential ones — including analytics and session recording — are only used if you agree, and you can change your mind at any time using the cookie settings link in our footer. Refusing them is as easy as accepting them and does not stop you using the site.
10. Security
Access to customer data is restricted to staff who need it, protected by individual accounts and multi-factor authentication. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and access is logged. Call recordings are stored in the United Kingdom and are not publicly accessible. If a breach occurs that is likely to risk your rights, we will notify the ICO within 72 hours and tell you where we are required to.
11. Children
DeskCaller is sold to businesses and is not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect data about anyone under 18.
12. Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date above and, where the change is significant, tell customers by email. Material changes affecting how we handle call data will be notified before they take effect.