Privacy policy
Last updated 8 October 2026
Who we are
Gaffer is a Highfold Group brand. Address: Office 21848, 182-184 High Street North, East Ham, London, E6 2JA. The "controller" of the personal data described here ("we", "us") is Highfold Group.
Questions about your data? Email hello@gafferhr.co.uk. We read every message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
What we collect
- Details you give us - your name, email address and password (stored as a secure hash); your business details (name, address, contacts, sick-reporting and holiday rules); the staff records you choose to enter: names, roles, contact emails, start dates, contract and pay details, dates of birth, right to work check details, sickness absence and fit-note dates, training records and notes; documents you upload to the document vault; policy acknowledgement records (time, IP address and browser of the person acknowledging).
- Payment details - handled entirely by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.
- Messages - what you send us by email or through our contact forms.
- Basic usage data - we count page views without cookies. To count unique visitors we use a one-way, daily-changing hash of your IP address and browser; we can't use it to identify you and it resets every day.
- Security logs - like most websites, our web server and mail server keep logs of each request: your IP address, the date and time, the page or service requested and your browser details (and, for emails, the sender and recipient addresses). We use them only to keep our services secure and working.
- Live chat - the messages you type into our chat assistant and any details you choose to send through it (see Live chat below).
Why we use it, and our lawful basis
| Purpose | Lawful basis (UK GDPR Art. 6) |
|---|---|
| Providing what you've ordered or signed up for, and talking to you about it | Contract |
| Replying to your messages and enquiries | Legitimate interests (or steps you ask us to take before a contract) |
| Taking payment, keeping accounts and tax records | Legal obligation |
| Keeping our services secure and preventing fraud and abuse | Legitimate interests |
| Improving our website using cookieless statistics | Legitimate interests |
| Sending you news and offers (only if you opted in - unsubscribe any time) | Consent |
Who we share it with
We never sell your data. We share it only with the suppliers below, who help us run Gaffer. Suppliers that act for us may use it only on our instructions, under contracts that require them to protect it. Where a supplier also uses data for its own purposes (as the table says), its own privacy policy covers that use.
| Supplier | What for |
|---|---|
| Contabo GmbH (servers in United Kingdom) | hosting: the server that runs this website and stores its database and files, and our own mail server on it, which sends and receives our emails |
| Stripe Payments UK Ltd | card payments and billing (Stripe is also an independent controller for fraud prevention and its own legal obligations) |
| Abacus.AI, Inc. (USA) | AI processing of live chat messages to write the assistant's replies |
Some of these suppliers may process data outside the UK (for example in the USA). Where they do, the transfer is protected by UK adequacy regulations (including the UK–US data bridge), or the ICO's International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses.
How long we keep it
- Your staff's records, policy acknowledgements and vault documents: until you delete them or close your account (we show you how long the law suggests keeping leavers' records). Closing your account deletes them straight away.
- An account that never started a paid plan: deleted with everything in it a year after it was last used. We email 30 days before, and logging in keeps it.
- Account and order data: while you're a customer, then 6 years (UK tax and limitation rules).
- Enquiries that don't lead anywhere: 2 years.
- Emails to and from our hello@gafferhr.co.uk mailbox: deleted from our mail server 2 years after they arrive.
- Our log of the emails we send you (address, subject and whether it was delivered): 1 year.
- Security logs on our servers: 14 days.
- Cookieless page-view and visitor counts: about 13 months (400 days).
- Backups: anything we delete stays in our nightly backups for up to 14 days, then it's gone.
- Live chat conversations: 180 days after the last message; details you send through the chat, with the recent part of the conversation, are kept like other enquiries.
Live chat
Our website has a chat assistant. It is an automated AI assistant, not a person: it answers questions using Gaffer's own web pages and information we've written for it, and it can make mistakes. If it can't help, it can take your details so our team can reply to you by email.
- What we keep - the messages you type, the assistant's replies, the page you started the chat on, when it happened, and a one-way hash of your IP address that changes every day (only to stop one connection using up the assistant - we don't use it to identify you). Please don't type card details or sensitive personal information into the chat; card numbers are removed automatically, from the chat and from details you send.
- AI processing - to write its replies, your messages and the relevant parts of our website are sent to Abacus.AI, Inc. in the United States, which acts as our processor under a contract that requires it to protect your data. The transfer is protected by UK adequacy regulations (including the UK–US data bridge), or the ICO's International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses.
- Details you send us - if you choose to leave your details (for example your name, email address and phone number) they reach the Gaffer team in the same way as a message through our contact form, together with the recent part of your conversation (so the team has the context), we email you to confirm we've got them, and we reply by email. Nobody from the team joins the chat itself.
- Why (lawful basis) - legitimate interests (answering questions about our products), and steps you ask us to take before entering into a contract when you ask us to get back to you.
- How long - chat conversations are deleted 180 days after the last message. If you send your details, they and the recent part of the conversation that goes with them are kept like other enquiries (2 years).
- On your device - once you start a chat, your browser keeps the conversation (in local storage, not a cookie) so it stays open as you move between pages. It's cleared the next time you visit after 24 hours without using it, or straight away when you choose "Start a new chat" or clear this site's data. Once you've sent your details, your browser no longer keeps them.
If your employer uses Gaffer
Small employers use Gaffer to keep their staff records, work out key employment dates and share workplace policies. If you work for a business that uses Gaffer, your employer is the controller of your details and decides how they're used: please contact them about your data. We're their processor and use your details only to provide Gaffer to them. We never sell them or use them for anything else.
- What we may hold - whatever your employer chooses to record, such as your name, role, work email address, start date, contract and pay details, date of birth, right to work check details, sickness absence and fit-note dates, training records and notes, and documents they upload. Sickness and fit-note details are health data, and right to work details can reveal your nationality or immigration status, so your employer needs a lawful reason to record them, usually their obligations as an employer.
- Policy acknowledgements - if your employer sends you a policy to read through Gaffer, we record when it was sent, when you first opened it and when you confirmed you'd read it, with the IP address and browser you used to confirm. Your employer can see these records, as evidence that you were given the policy.
- Who can see it - your employer's Gaffer account owner and the managers they invite. Our hosting and backup suppliers (listed above) store it for us under contract.
- How long - until your employer deletes it or closes their Gaffer account. For people who've left, Gaffer shows your employer how long the law suggests keeping records (for example right to work records for 2 years after you leave). Anything deleted leaves our backups within 14 days.
- No tracking - the pages your employer sends you carry no advertising tags and no cookie banner.
- Your rights - ask your employer. If you'd rather, email hello@gafferhr.co.uk and we'll pass your request to your employer and help them respond.
Your rights
You can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, or to receive it in a portable format. You can withdraw consent at any time. If you have an account you can delete it yourself from your account page. Email hello@gafferhr.co.uk for anything else - we'll respond within one month.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We'd appreciate the chance to put things right first.
Changes
If we make important changes we'll update the date above and, where appropriate, tell you by email.